City Agrees to Relocate Water Line on Dicks Hill Parkway Project

The City of Toccoa has agreed to fund its share of the ongoing Dicks Hill Parkway project by paying to relocate a water main.

At their meeting Monday night, Commissioners voted to authorize an agreement with the County to relocate the water line.

Last month, the Georgia Department of Transportation agreed to fund $800,000 of the $2.5 million dollar slope stabilization project City Manager Billy Morse said Tuesday, he expects the City’s portion to be around $130,000.

“We’ve agreed to come up with the money to relocate the water line,” Morse said. “We’re estimating it at $130,000, but because of the nature of this project, it’s a little hard to put your finger on. We’re hoping it’s less than that, but it could be double that. It’s straight down for a couple hundred feet. So, once they start working on a slope like that, who knows what’s going to happen. So, we’ll hope for the best and hope that ours if fairly simple compared to the problem that the County has to deal with.”

Because of a safety issue for motorists, County Commissioners voted last December to close a stretch of Dicks Hill Parkway.

However, because of the complexity of the project, the county was unable to complete it in house; which created greater challenges and slowed the process down.

In April, the Stephens County Board of Commissioners awarded Hayward Baker Incorporated a design build to repair the slope in the amount of $2.1-million, dependent on funding from the State of Georgia.