Marietta has a new project in East Cobb that is expected to begin this fall and is also expected to cause a myriad of traffic delays for the area for the next two years. The project, an almost $42 million, 54″ water main replacement, will span for miles and will replace segments of a 50-year-old water main pipe. This project is scheduled to begin near the Indian Hills Country Club and run along Lower Roswell Road and Terrell Mill Roads through the intersection of Cobb Pkwy and Terrell Mill Road.
Glenn Page, General Manager of the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority stated that the pipe will begin at one of the county’s two water plants, Quarles Water Treatment Plant on Lower Roswell Road. Ultimately, this pipeline will go all the way across Cobb to the western border against Paulding County and down near the 75/285 exchange.”
The later sections of the project have not been planned as of yet, but the majority of the pipe will be laid underneath the asphalt of existing roads, starting with large portions of Lower Roswell and Terrell Mill Roads. Essentially the project is connecting the Quarles Water Treatment Plant with another major pipeline that runs along Cobb Pkwy/Hwy 41 in the Center of Cobb County, said Page. The project is scheduled to be completed late in 2017.
Commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the area extending from the site into the Cobb County part of Atlanta, said the County Transportation Department is working with the water authority to plan for significant traffic delays and bottlenecks. The two sides are talking and DOT has been able to tell the water authority the things they think the county needs to know to try to help the citizens go through the project, Ott said. The delays will range from complete closures of some roads to single-lane closures on others, Page said. And when one area of the transit system closes or causes delays, all the surrounding roadways are affected. And this on top of an already stressed, bogged down highway and traffic system. The website, scheduled to launch in August, will show road closures and traffic speeds on local roads. The new website will basically tell where people and traffic are at any time.
All officials agree that the delays and bottlenecks will occur throughout most of 2017. “What we’re trying to do is get all the construction done that’s in the Highway 41 corridor prior to the Braves first pitch in April 2017,” Page said.