Macon Water Authority restoring collapsed stormwater pipe that caused sinkhole

The Macon Water Authority (MWA) is working to restore a collapsed stormwater pipe after a sinkhole was reported near Telfair Street.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Macon Water Authority (MWA) is working to restore a collapsed stormwater pipe after a sinkhole was reported near Telfair Street.

MWA was alerted to the sinkhole in the parking lot of the Bibb County Outreach and Restorative Justice Center after an eight-inch rainfall event. Stormwater Assistant Manager, Monte Tolleson, recalled how the pipe failure was discovered.

“As we looked, we saw the hole in the parking lot,” Tolleson said. “So we went inside the pipe, which starts under Telfair Street, and made our way down and found that there was indeed a pipe failure, a culvert failure, under the parking lot.”

According to Tolleson, a culvert is a stormwater pipe with a flat bottom, walls and an arched brick top. The culvert was built with hand-laid brick in the early 1900s and is due for a complete rehabilitation.

Repairs are being made by UAM, a contractor that specializes in trenchless technology. The repair process involves cleaning, reinforcing, spray lining and curing of the failed pipe. Tolleson says this method is safer and more cost effective.

“We’ve done this repair method before,” Tolleson said. “It saves us a lot of money to be able to repair it from the inside. If we were to go in and dig all this up, Telfair Street, across the parking lot, that kind of thing, it would be four or five times the cost.”

Telfair Street is expected to be closed for a month during the repairs. Once complete, the new pipe will have an expected service life of 50 to 75 years.

While infrastructure in the area had previously undergone maintenance, it became MWA’s top priority after the pipe collapsed. Tolleson wants to assure the community the MWA is working diligently to restore the stormwater system.

“We understand that we’ve got an enormous amount of infrastructure that we need to take care of, and I just want the community to feel confident that we are taking care of what we can,” Tolleson said. “This is a big elephant, and we’ve just gotta eat it one bite at a time.”

Repairs are expected to cost around $300,000, which will come from SPLOST dollars and revenue generated by the stormwater utility fee.

To bypass Telfair, drivers should use Hazel Street to the north and Ash Street to the south.