BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — After years of water outages and repeated main breaks, construction is finally set to begin on a major water infrastructure project in DeKalb County.
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Starting Monday, crews will begin replacing aging water lines in Brookhaven’s Drew Valley neighborhood, work that is expected to impact one busy road and about 250 homes over the next six months.
Neighbors say the project is long overdue.
For many residents, bursting water mains and unexpected service disruptions have become a way of life.
“We had more than 20 outages on our street and throughout the neighborhood on this side in one year,” homeowner Lauren Kieffer said.
DeKalb County Watershed Management officials say the problem is simple: The pipes are too old and too small.
“Mostly the pipe is aged and beyond its lifespan,” a county representative explained during a recent community meeting.
Many of the existing water lines were installed in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the county, that aging infrastructure has led to dozens of water main breaks in the area over several decades.
One of those breaks happened right in front of Kieffer’s home. She says outages have become so frequent that some neighbors now fill bathtubs with water just in case.
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“It’s just one thing after another,” she said.
The upcoming project aims to provide a permanent solution. Crews will replace nearly 6,600 linear feet, about a mile and a quarter, of old pipe with new 8-inch water main lines. The work will run along several streets, including busy Dresden Drive, which is expected to see traffic impacts.
DeKalb Watershed Management outlined the plan during an online community meeting last week. The project is part of the county’s $4 billion capital improvement program designed to upgrade aging infrastructure across the county.
The need for improvements has been highlighted repeatedly. Last May, a massive water main break on Drew Valley Road sent a geyser of water shooting into the air and disrupted service to hundreds of customers.
Just this week, another break occurred less than half a mile away on Dresden Drive, requiring emergency repairs and temporary steel plates over the roadway.
County officials told neighbors in the Grant Drive area to expect construction noise and increased traffic during the project, but said frequent water outages are not anticipated while the work is underway.
Despite the inconvenience, many residents say the short-term disruption will be worth it.
“Once it’s all complete, hopefully we will not need water in our bathtubs anymore,” Kieffer said.
The county expects installation of the new pipes to be finished by July, with road repairs and final construction wrapping up by August.
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