Water Work Planned in Martin Today

More water line work is planned in the Martin area of Stephens County today in conjunction with the Georgia Highway 17 construction project.

According to the Georgia Department of Transportation, crews will be installing and getting a new water line up and running today at the intersection of Sisk Road and State Route 17.

The DOT said installing that new water line will require water to be shut off at that intersection today.

Georgia DOT Spokesperson Teri Pope said that water will be shut off starting at about 9 a.m. and water restored to the intersection and everything operational by 5 p.m. today.

Pope said the work is necessary to move the water line out from under where the four-lane Highway 17 will go into where the new right-of-way will be for the road.

“Right now, where the water lines were is actually going to be under asphalt so they would not be able to access them or work on them,” said Pope. “Utility companies know that as GDOT does a project, they are required to move those lines out of the way.”

According to Pope, the lines will go in the rights-of-way for the new road instead.

Pope said that the DOT is hopeful the water line will be back up and running before 5 p.m., but wants people in the area of the Sisk Road-Highway 17 intersection to be aware that water service could be disrupted up until that time.

This water line relocation is one small part of the larger project to construct a four-lane Georgia Highway 17 from the Stephens County-Franklin County line to Memorial Drive in Toccoa.

Pope said that work on the overall project has slowed this week due to the constant rain.

“As much rain as we have had, it just permeates down and it could take us a solid week to dry out,” said Pope. “It is going to have to be dry for multiple days in a row before we can do earthwork again.”

The four-lane Georgia Highway 17 is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2016.