SR 51 Sinkhole Repairs Complete, Road Re-Open

Work to repair a Hart County highway damaged by a sinkhole this past Spring is complete.

The Georgia Department of Transportation finished work on the State Route 51 sinkhole Thursday and the road re-opened to traffic Thursday afternoon.

Crews have been working to repair this sinkhole since May.

The sinkhole opened up on State Route 51, about six miles north of Hartwell, on the morning of May 6.

The earth supporting the roadway, which is surrounded on both sides by Lake Hartwell, was undermined from a pipe failure approximately 38 feet under the road.

That pipe failure was about 180 feet long and 13 feet in diameter.

Once the asphalt was removed, Georgia DOT engineers found a cavity 10 feet square at the top and 20 feet deep taking up almost the entire northbound lane.
Repairs cost just over $1 million, according to the DOT.