Life's a ditch on Grady Drive these days.

Concerned Reader John Ohrt lives there and is tired of a long-standing problem.

Grady is split by a large drainage ditch that looks to be about 10 feet deep and maybe 15 feet across. About half-way down the street, a short stretch of asphalt connects the two lanes on an earthen bridge that has a large metal drain pipe running through it.

Problem is, the downhill side of the bridge is eroding pretty badly, causing an unsightly and possibly dangerous situation.

"Need some help in fixing this before the whole street caves in and someone gets hurt," Ohrt wrote. "Not sure why they don't put in a drain from one end to the other and cover the whole thing up. It's just a mosquito and snake pit, an eyesore to the whole neighborhood."

Well, as you can tell from the familiar orange-and-white barrels and barricades in the picture, the city is already on this. But we can find out what the plans are to address the problem.

Ron Smith, deputy director of Public Services, said the erosion problem is serious and was likely caused because someone stole a piece of metal installed to prevent erosion.

So what's the city going to do?

"It's back in engineering's hands. It's going to take quite a bit to fix it," Smith said. "When I talked to Donna (Newman, director of engineering) she said, 'Why don't you just hold up and let me see if we can take that crossing out, because it's not really necessary.'"

Smith said the city did the same thing on Effingham Way off of Weems Road a long time ago, and it worked out well.

So we'll wait and see what the engineers say.

Meanwhile, if you have some sentimental attachment to the connector -- like that's where you proposed to your wife -- or if you know of some historical significance -- like that's where Wilson's Raiders crossed the ditch -- this might be the time to raise your hand and be heard. (By the way, if you really did propose there, I hope you spit out the Red Man first. If she said yes, I hope she did, too.)

As far as putting in a drain and covering the whole thing up, there are generally two reasons that's not done in a case like this, said Pat Biegler, director of the Public Services Department.

"Not having seen that particular project, I couldn't comment on the specifics," Biegler said. "But generally, a ditch offers a great deal more capacity than a pipe would. In addition to being an extremely expensive proposition, you also lose capacity."

Capacity is important, because if you reduce it in one area, things can back up in another area in kind of an hydraulic domino effect.

"It would transfer problems to other areas, so we're always reluctant to change the capacity," Biegler said.

Update

I called Steve Gibbon, whom Alert Readers will remember from last Monday's Inquirer, to see if the city had been out to see about his erosion problem. A storm drain dumps into a creek behind his house, eroding his yard and threatening to collapse his chain link fence.

"Yeah, they've been out here today," Gibbon said Friday. "They had engineers out here looking into everything. But they said they had to go back and discuss what to do."

So we'll wait and see what the engineers say.

Is there an echo in here?

Seen something that needs work? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.