Inquirer: Erosion eating away at dangerous bridge

Life is still a ditch over on Grady Drive.

Grady, which runs off of Miller Road near Waddell Elementary School, is one of those split roads that has a drainage ditch running between the two lanes. About half-way down the short street, a land bridge connects the two lanes.

The bridge is eroding on one side and presents something of a potential danger.

And it's been that way for quite a while. I first wrote about the problem in May of 2012, when a Concerned Reader reported it.

At the time, the city said repairing the bridge would be a very expensive undertaking, so they were considering just taking it and its short drain pipe out.

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

Anyway, three years later and nothing's been done. At some point, the city put up some of those orange and white sawhorse type blockades to make the situation safer, but at least one of those has been reduced to

splinters by bad drivers, one assumes.

Well now another Concerned Reader, Jim, wrote to ask when the problem is going to be taken care of.

"I would like you to come to Grady Drive and see the erosion of the bridge that crosses the creek that runs between the two parts of Grady Drive," Jim wrote.

"From what I heard it was to be fixed in 2012, but nothing has been done. It is an eyesore and a danger."

I talked to a couple of people at the city, and it turns out they have decided to just do away with the bridge because it's really not needed from a traffic standpoint, and if anything it only impedes the drainage ditch.

But when they started looking into actually removing it, they discovered that there is a water line running through it.

So the city sent word to the Water Works that they need to move the water line. No one is sure exactly how long ago that was.

"They have been asked, but it looks like we probably need to get back in touch with them," said Engineering Director Donna Newman.

We'll see what the Water Works has to say and report back to you.

Update

A couple of weeks back we looked at the median at 10th Street and First Avenue, where the city had to tear up a short section of sidewalk to put in a new traffic light pole.

As a result, people in wheelchairs or scooters were having to go around the median either out into 10th Street or into the cut-through in the median.

I'm happy to report that the city has packed what they call graded aggregate base as a temporary fix until the light project is completed and the concrete sidewalk can be restored.

It's ugly, but at least it's safe (kind of like the Government Center next door).

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

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 9:46 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Erosion eating away at dangerous bridge ."