Rain hampering road work in Georgia

GAINESVILLE - All of the rain of the past few weeks is taking its toll on road work in Georgia.

"Rain has slowed road work on resurfacing projects," says Teri Pope, spokesman woman for the Georgia Department of Transportation's (GDOT's) Gainesville office. "Major construction projects are built over (a) three- to three-and-a-half year period and while rain slows work now, contractors work to catch up in the dry times."

Pope said the majority of Georgia's road construction happens from March to November, adding "The delay depends on the type of work underway during rainy times. If a project is still grading and has a lot of dirt exposed, it can take a week or more for the ground to dry out enough for work to resume. If a project has finished grading and working on a layer of gravel or base work can continue without requiring an extended time to dry out. The further along a project is in construction, the less rain slows the work."

Despite rain and its impact on resurfacing projects, they are not behind schedule, according to Pope, "because we only look at the completion date, but they are taking longer than expected. It is a strange technicality, but by contract we only hold them to the completion date."

Pope cited the repaving on a section of Dawsonville Highway west of Gainesville as an example of a local project that is being impacted by the rain.

"(This project) has a completion date of Oct 31, 2013 so it isn't behind, but they've only been able to work two days over the last five work days," she said late Thursday. The project involves resurfacing 1.4 miles of Dawsonville Highway from Boling Bridge to Manor Ridge Road.