Creek Channel Must Be Widened on Colbert Hollow Road Project

By Ronnie Moore, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Dec. 8–RINGGOLD, Ga. — It is going to cost Catoosa County up to $64,000 more than the contract price to have the contractor expanding the Colbert Hollow Road bridge to widen the channel of Little Chickamauga Creek.

Catoosa Public Works Authority board members learned about the added expense this week.

County Manager Mike Helton said a meeting has been arranged with the project engineer, Talley Construction Co. and county officials to discuss prices and resolution of the issue.

“I’m still looking at how and why it happened that a county employee told Talley to not perform the channel area excavation,” he said.

Mike Price, who engineered the project, said he checked on the job recently and saw that the channel of the creek had not been widened, as the contract called for.

“Talley Construction has the decking on the new bridge, but the upstream excavation hasn’t been done,” Mr. Price said. “I was informed a county employee told Talley to not perform the excavation.”

Flooding will occur upstream if the stream channel is not widened, Mr. Price said. “There are about 1,000 acres that drain into the channel,” he said.

Board member Don Hutelin agreed. “The work has to be done, make no mistake about it,” Mr. Hutelin said.

Mr. Price said a permit will need to be obtained from environmental officials to work on the stream channel.

But the nearly completed bridge is now in the way of heavy equipment that will be needed for the channel work. Mr. Price said the cost quoted by Talley for the excavation now is $93,000.

“If the county hauls the materials away that will drop to $74,900,” the engineer said. He said the county had already paid $29,000 in the bridge contract to widen the channel so debris will not clog the stream at the bridge and block flow during heavy rains.

In other action, Public Works Director Olney Meadows said a recent methane gas sampling at the 2.6 acres purchased by the county from a private owner, near the landfill, showed a continued elevated reading.

“The goal is to get a methane gas reading below 5 percent and the most recent reading is 13 percent, compared to 9 percent last year,” he said.

E-mail Ronnie Moore at ronniem@timesfreepress.com

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