Millions At Stake To Replace Bridges

DEKALB COUNTY, GA -- The clock is running on the Georgia Department of Transportation. They have six months to rebuild four bridges destroyed by the floods. If they can do it, they'll save the state, DeKalb County and Sandy Springs millions of dollars.

Two of the bridges are in Sandy Springs where 20-thousand vehicles a day are being re-routed around Peachtree-Dunwoody Road at Nancy Creek. Another 17-thousand vehicles a day are skirting Riverside Drive at March Creek.

In DeKalb County, 25-thousand vehicles have to find a different way across Barbashela Creek rather than Redan Road. They are three of four bridges that will have to be rebuilt.

Sandy Springs and DeKalb County have turned to the Georgia Department of Transportation to help them meet a deadline that if made, will cost them nothing to build the bridges.

In order to be eligible for emergency relief funds from the Federal Highway Administration the bridges have to be rebuilt within six months of the flooding.

Georgia DOT Press Secretary David Spear says it normally takes about 18-months to build a bridge. To meet the six month deadline he says the DOT will shorten the bidding process and do all the planning in house. "We need to hustle," Spear said. "That's a very aggressive time frame particularly when it's six months over the course of winter when you may lose days or weeks for weather issues."

When asked if any shortcuts will be taken in the structure of the bridges, Spear said "No, we can't do that and we wouldn't do that and we won't do that."

The damaged bridges have caused not only a traffic problem, but they have hurt a lot of businesses that line the roads near the bridges. Fantastic Tire and Auto sits behind the closed road signs on Redan Road. "That's going to be a big cut for me," said William Herron. "I may have to cut down my staff."

Repair bays at the shop sit empty. Herron says he gets a lot of business from people driving by his store looking for a quick oil change on the way home from work. The assistant general manager said he did only about $300 worth of business Thursday. "That's not a good day as opposed to two, three grand on an average day."

For Herron it might seem like an eternity before the road is open again, but for the DOT it's a pressure deadline. "We need to build four bridges between now and the end of next March," said the DOT's Spear. Is it possible? "Very much so, it's possible, and it will happen," he said.

The Department of Transportation estimates each bridge will cost over a million dollars to replace.