Inquirer: Bumpy ride on West Bank road trip

We venture over to the West Bank this week, where Concerned Reader Paul wants something done about a bad stretch of road.

"Lee Road 728 runs from Opelika Road (SR 340) about a mile up to the old high school -- now the Junior High and Freshman Center. It divides the South and East Elementary Schools. It has the roughest patch of pavement anywhere in the world.

"Drainage from the J.D. Drury Little League fields causes the problem. Lee County maintains Smiths Stations roads, and the Water and Sewer Authority is involved. Everyone denies responsibility.

"A new drug store is done, lot already striped, at one end, and 8-10 fairly new homes are on the opposite side of the street.

"If The Inquirer has run out of drunken telephone poles, maybe a look wouldn't hurt."

As it turns out, I am fresh out of pole problems (more on that in a moment). So, with the assistance of Google Maps, I located Lee Road 728, which is out beyond the high school in Smiths Station.

I have long been puzzled by Lee County's practice of numbering roads (with no discernable rhyme, reason or pattern). In fact, we used to send rookie reporters over there with an address on "Lee Road." They would inevitably have to stop and ask for directions, get thoroughly chided, and then stomp back into the office.

Anyway, Paul was right about 728. About half-way down the short stretch in a bend beside a little league field, the road is horrible. In addition to the asphalt being riddled with cracks, untold former potholes have been shoddily patched with blacktop here and concrete there, so the surface has a certain lunar quality.

Driving on it is like driving on Broadway in the Historic District, but with considerably less charm. (No offense, Smiths Station.)

So we will attempt to determine which governmental entity is responsible for the mess and find out what they intend to do about it.

Stay tuned.

Update

As I had suspected would happen, Georgia Power was all over the funky utility pole we wrote about last week. That's what they do.

Last week, Georgia Power's Robert Watkins told me it would take about three days to replace the pole because they had to locate underground utilities first. Then on Thursday, I got an email telling me the new pole was up, the power lines had been switched over and the other utilities on the pole were notified that they need to move theirs, too. Then the old one can be removed.

Keep an eye on the pole at the intersection of Woodruff Road and 51st Street and see how long it takes the other utilities to get around to it. They tend to take their time about it.

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

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Bumpy ride on West Bank road trip ."