The Bulloch County commissioners recently awarded an engineering contract, for fees up to $158,000, to Kimley-Horn and Associates for a water-flow study and design of drainage structures needed to fix Brannen Pond Road. A two-mile stretch of the road has remained closed since Hurricane Idalia dumped flooding rains on the region in late August.

This should not be confused with the construction contract, which is expected to cost more and for which the county will seek Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement, as well as reimbursement for engineering costs. The design and engineering work will need to meet FEMA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requirements, county staff stated in a memo to the commissioners.

Unlike the other roads damaged during the storm and repaired within a few days or weeks by county Public Works Department crews, Brannen Pond Road is a paved road. Flooding washed away a portion of the road’s shoulder, damaging a length of guardrail along a sharp curve with a steep embankment and also undermining the two existing 60-inch-diameter drainage pipes, according to the county’s assessment.

Although the damaged portion of road addressed in the contract is only 200 feet long, all of the Brannen Pond Connector between Brooklet-Denmark Road and U.S. Highway 80 remains closed to through traffic because of a lack of detours other than circuitous routes on dirt roads, said County Engineer Brad Deal.

The design work is expected to be completed by May, Deal reported to the commissioners. So and the county would advertise for construction bids after that. In a phone interview last week, he acknowledged that the road could remain closed through most of 2024 for the work to be completed, with the timing of the federal permits also being a factor.

Both the time needed for the construction and the cost will also depend on what is called for in the final design.

“It will depend on the design that gets approved, so it’s a little hard to guess at what the construction cost is going to be, not knowing that yet,” Deal said. “We’re going to look at what improvements need to be made to the drainage. That will determine the cost.”

 

Built back better?

Pressed for whether that will likely be more or less than $1 million, he said the engineers may find a solution that is significantly less. Just building the road back the way it was with the same drainage structures might cost “somewhere around $400,000,” Deal said, as “just a guess,” but added that Kimley-Horn’s drainage analysis will determine if different structures are needed.

Much of the stormwater from the Brooklet area flows under the road at that point, county staff members have said. So they have indicated an interest in building the drainage and road back better if needed to prevent future damage.

“The end result we want to achieve is to build the road back in a way that it won’t have the same drainage issues and safety issues that it used to have,” Deal said.

Deal described the process used to select the engineering firm during the Dec. 19 Board of Commissioners meeting. The commissioners then unanimously approved the contract, with $158,000 as the expected maximum.

“Some of the task orders within the contract may possibly not have to be used,” he said.

Kimley-Horn and Associates, based in Savannah, was one of four firms that responded to the county’s “request for qualifications” for engineering services. The others were EMC, Craston LLC and TR Long Engineering.

County staff members evaluated the submissions on a scoring system for fit with the project, and Kimley-Horn scored highest, Deal reported. With input from other firms not bidding, county staff had projected a price range of $147,000 to $177,000 for the listed services, so the $158,000 quote was within the range.

Dozens of road segments in Bulloch County were damaged when Hurricane Idalia passed through Georgia on Aug. 30, dumping eight inches or more of rain on much of the county. But county crews repaired dirt roads, reopening all but four within 10 days, and only Brannen Po