Disruptions caused by Scott Boulevard water main project frustrate DeKalb residents
There are many ways to anger your neighbors.
Some people hold loud parties or put obnoxious signs in their yards. DeKalb County Watershed did it by announcing that a major project would be finished in nine months and working on it for over a year.
During an Aug. 13 meeting about Phase III of the Scott Boulevard water main replacement project, Decatur and Greater Decatur affected by it gave county watershed officials an earful about disruptions the project has caused. Watershed officials listened and apologized. Repeatedly.
“I’d like to extend a sincere apology for the inconveniences and the troubles you’ve been experiencing,” DeKalb County Watershed Director David Hayes said.
The word “inconvenience” was used throughout the meeting, attended by several dozen residents living on the 10 streets affected by the replacement work. Those streets include Maple Street, North Carter Road, Russell Drive, and Chester Way.
This project is not to be confused with Phase II of the Scott Boulevard replacement project, which has significantly affected East Ponce de Leon, as loyal patrons of the Pin Ups Gentlemen’s Club can attest. Phase II began around the same time as Phase III and is supposed to be finished by December 2024.
When a reporter visited the area affected by Phase III following the Aug. 13 meeting, each street was in rough shape.
After calling it an inconvenience multiple times, Russell Drive resident Lylia Lucio pushed back.
“It’s not an inconvenience,” she said. “It’s negligence.”
The county admits that the work on Phase III, overseen by Garney Construction, has not gone as well as hoped. The estimated completion date of March 2024 has been pushed back to October.
Edgardo Amezquita, a county project manager in charge of Phase III, said things got off to a rocky start when a water main broke on Maple Street.
“The county had trouble shutting it down,” he said. “That delayed everything else.”
A county spokesperson cited several issues that caused delays in Phase III, including supply chain issues, coordination with a local elementary school, navigating the various utilities in the area, and excavating rock.
Residents can recite their list of inconveniences, including trash left by the contractors, confusing or inadequate communication about road closures, and roads left in a state that makes them nearly irreversible. One of the workers was accused of urinating in someone’s yard (technically, it was in the right of way, residents later clarified).
“We’ve had to rearrange our lives,” another resident said during the meeting.
Residents said deliveries, including medications, had gone undelivered because the trucks couldn’t get through. Vehicles have required extensive repair and have had to navigate holes, so large drivers were worried they’d fall into them.
“I’ve replaced two ball joints and a strut on my vehicle, from just off-roading,” Russell Drive resident Sarah Boim said. “I think we got a note in November they were going to be doing a nine-week project and so it’s been nine months.”
Craig Wiley, a manager with Garney, said his company is committed to doing a quality job on the project.
“We’re here to work safely and effectively, to do good work, and everything we can do within the bounds of the contract to improve what’s here, as we came to do,” he said.
Watershed employees and fed-up residents agreed that the work is necessary and worth doing. The work is part of the county’s plans to replace 19,650 linear feet of aging pipelines as part of a $2.4 billion capital improvement program. Phase III includes installing a 6,000 linear feet of 30-inch transmission line. As Hayes noted, the current transmission line needs replacing because “It’s reached the end of its useful life.”
“We are making DeKalb better,” Hayes said. “We’re putting in infrastructure that should not allow you to have any water issues for decades to come.”
Lucio said the length of the project is not the main issue.
“We don’t have a problem with this taking longer,” she said. “The problem is communication.”
Watershed officials outlined several steps they plan to take, including giving better notice to residents and routing communication through one point of contact to avoid conflicting messages.
Boim said previous meetings about the project haven’t helped, but she was hopeful the Aug. 13 meeting would have a different outcome.
“I was happy to hear that Mr. Hayes was trying to solve problems during the meeting,” she said. “I thought that was promising.”
This story was provided by WABE content partner Decaturish.
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