Pending test results delay Cobb County road repairs for another week

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County road that was washed out by heavy rain last week will be closed for even longer than officials originally expected.

A sinkhole cut Spring Hill Parkway in half near Cumberland Boulevard in Smyrna.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is awaiting results from a hydrology study, which will push back the date to start repairs one week.

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The sinkhole opened up nearly a week ago.

Since then, barricades have blocked the road and drivers have had to use a detour through the area.

Cobb County officials say a large metal pipe that carried a stream under the road failed during heavy rain last Monday night.

County spokesperson Ross Cavitt says the county is replacing the aging system that malfunctioned.

Instead of a large single pipe, he says it will be a modern three-pipe system.

Reese Alley, the CEO of SCA Construction, which works to repair damaged roads like this, says large metal pipes installed decades ago are getting old and the dirt is falling off of them.

He says corrugated, or ridged, metal pipes are becoming obsolete.

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“We absolutely have better solutions. There’s been a lot of new innovation in that area in terms of the pipes and structures we can install in those different areas,” Alley told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims.

Contractors came to the site last week, as rain continued to fall, to study the water flow under the road.

Repairing the sinkhole could take three to four weeks.

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