Busy DeKalb County street to be intermittently closed as crews replace pipes

STONECREST, Ga. — DeKalb County is set to replace thousands of feet of piping underground, but to do it, they have to shut some lane closures down intermittently for months.

Homeowners tell Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes that they didn’t even know the project was supposed to start Monday.

Fernandes spoke with neighbors in the area to get their reactions to the closure.

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The closure is going to go a long way crossing Thompson Mill Road from Snapfinger Road all the way down to Panola Road.

Drivers use this area as a cut-through when traffic is backed up.

That’s going to be much worse if DeKalb County shuts down the road until the end of the year, neighbors say.

Residents in the area were irritated at the lack of notice.

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“You would think something is big, they would send out flyers, a newsletter or something,” Xavier Turner, who lives in the area, told Channel 2 Action News.

DeKalb County has been telling residents about the Thompson Mill Road Project for months, but many neighbors who will be impacted by the closure said they found out about it this week.

According to the county, a social media campaign began on May 11 on Facebook and the information was also posted on the county’s website.

“We just heard about it yesterday,” Derek Johnson said.

The project on Thompson Mill Road is set to replace about 11,000 feet of water pipes underground.

The section of the road from Snapfinger to Panola will be closed off for six months, with lanes closed at different times, impacting traffic.

“I didn’t know anything about that so, I think there’s gonna be a lot of traffic though, and I don’t know how that’s gonna affect the whole section because there’s already traffic now,” Turner told Channel 2 Action News.

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DeKalb watershed officials say it won’t affect water in the neighborhood until the final tie-ins happen in the winter. They said neighbors in the area won’t have water for a brief time, only about 30 minutes on one day.

Officials said they’ll give residents who could be impacted a three-day notice before turning it off.

Some who live in the area are taking precautions anyway.

Johnson told Fernandes that he went to get a bunch of water on Sunday, just in case.

According to a county spokesperson, the work is technically starting Monday, but the first few days of the project are used to stage and move equipment in. The actual construction is expected to begin at the end of the week.

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