As planning moves forward for repairs and reconstruction of several paved road segments with drainage structures in Bulloch County, engineers propose for one road – G.W. Oliver Road – to get a brand-new bridge where there was only a series of large drainage pipes previously.

The deluges of rain and surging creek waters brought by Tropical Storm Debby, Hurricane Helene and a later, unnamed storm front in late summer through all 2024 caused the damage on G.W. Oliver  Road and four other roads mentioned in this update. For a sixth road, Cypress Lake Road, the damage that has  resulted in  what is expected to be a more than a two-year closure wasn’t attributed directly to the storm but to a February 2025 vehicle accident.

But a paved section of G.W. Oliver Road, from about 700 feet east of the Sinkhole Road intersection to about 3,300 feet west of G.W.  Oliver Spur Road, was first closed from Aug. 6, 2024 because of damage from Tropical Storm Debby. The road was reopened but closed again in November after further downpours caused further deterioration.

A portion of the pavement collapsed from one edge to well past the center line, exposing a jumble of separated and broken, large concrete pipes. Seven pipes, each six feet in diameter, previously carried the waters of Little Lotts Creek under the road, interim County Engineer Ron Nelson explained when asked for an update on the planned repairs.

The Bulloch County Board of Commissioners in early July approved a $424,500 contract with Kimley-Horn and Associates for design and engineering services for the G.W. Oliver restoration. Including that cost as well as the eventual construction expense, this could be a nearly $3 million project, Nelson said this week.

“What makes this project unique is this location has, in sequence, seven 72-inch reinforced concrete pipes. … So, if you can imagine having a six-foot inside diameter, seven pipes that size,” he said. “At this point what we’ve agreed upon with Kimley-Horn as far as scope, and it’s also been agreed upon through our FEMA interaction, is that it’s going to be a new bridge installed.”

So, this will not be a bridge replacement, “because there’s not a bridge there now,” Nelson emphasized.

The current proposal  is for  a multi-span, conventional bridge about 150 feet long.

G.W.  Oliver Road includes a longer, unpaved stretch into the southeastern portion of the county. There are homes on the paved section, but all on the other side of the collapsed area, further from the Sinkhole Road intersection, he said, and residents there have been able to detour while the road remains closed to through traffic.

Previous projects

Kimley-Horn and Associates is the same nationwide consulting firm with a Savannah office that previously did the design and engineering work for the drainage structure, pavement and guardrail reconstruction on Brannen Pond Road, which reopened Dec. 6, 2024. It had been closed since Hurricane Idalia poured through in late August 2023.

After August 2024’s Tropical Storm Debby washed out a bridge-like box culvert on Nevils-Denmark Road, Kimley Horn handled the planning for its replacement. That segment  of Nevils-Denmark was reopened on Aug. 18, 2025, becoming, after a 377-day closure, the first major paved road restoration from last year’s storm damage to be completed in Bulloch County.

The county commissioners in August 2024 had approved a “master agreement for continuing professional services” with Kimley Horn, and the G.W. Oliver Road design and engineering contract was awarded under that agreement.

“We wanted to continue that relationship with Kimley-Horn since we’d already established a pretty good track record over the last, at this point, almost two years with Kimley-Horn on FEMA projects,” Nelson said this week.

On each of the projects mentioned here, the 1% Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST is a major local funding source. However, on  all of the projects except the one on Cypress Lake Road – where storm damage was not the main culprit – and one smaller project, the county has obtained or is seeking disaster mitigation funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and Georgia’s state-level counterpart, GEMA.

‘August 2027’

The tentative schedule for the G.W. Oliver Road project calls for completed plans to go out for construction bids in late spring 2026. With 15 months expected for construction, that puts it in line for “August 2027 completion,” and opening to traffic, which Nelson noted “just coincidentally falls on the same timeframe as Cypress Lake.”

FEMA reimbursement usually covers 75% of the construction cost and GEMA 10%, leaving the county to pay 15% unreimbursed. But the county remains responsible for 100% of the design costs, which are all typically paid from T-SPLOST.

Cypress Lake timeline

With no storm disaster declaration involved, FEMA will reimburse none of the costs for reconstruction of the bridge over Dry Branch on Cypress Lake Road. A segment of the usually busy road between Register and Statesboro has been closed and subject to detour since a vehicle crashed into the 50-year-old bridge Feb. 25 and shifted the structure, after which engineers recommended a total bridge replacement.

On the advice of county staff, the commissioners in April agreed to apply for an available $2,247,332 Local Road Assistance grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation on the basis of this project. This funding is in the bank, Nelson said.

With the Cypress Lake bridge not being a FEMA project, county officials didn’t make it a Kimley-Horn project. Instead, the commissioners in April approved a $378,300 contract with the Marietta-based firm Heath & Lineback Engineers for engineering and design work on the bridge replacement.

But as Nelson noted, his projected timelines for the two bridge projects are almost identical. With the Cypress Lake Road geotechnical studies done and the plans 30% complete as of last month, as predicted, final plans should be delivered in early 2026, he said, probably to go out for construction bids by late spring 2026, and also after 15 months construction time, the road could reopen to traffic in August 2027.

Country Club Road

Work to restore a portion of Country Club Road, which has been closed since May 12 because of cumulative water damage, is projected to be complete in roughly half that time.

In August, Bulloch County EMA Director Corey Kemp reported that he had signed off on a $891,000 FEMA funding estimate for the this project.

Kimley-Horn is handling the engineering and design, and Nelson has said he expects the repairs to be completed for the road to reopen in September 2026.

Pleasant Hill & Metz

For this update, Nelson reported two other, lesser-known projects, on roads that are currently open, Pleasant Hill Road and Metz Road. The county has awarded a local engineer, Wesley Parker of Parker Engineering, the engineering and permitting services contracts on these, at fees of $18,000 for the Pleasant Hill Road project and $32,000 for the Metz Road planning.

On Pleasant Hill Road, which intersects U.S. Highway 80 north of Portal and continues northward, inspectors after Tropical Storm Debby discovered damage to a culvert with four 9-by-9-foot passages. The Georgia Department of Transportation inspects the structure as a bridge because of its size, Nelson said.

A “wing wall” on the upstream side had been sheered off, he said. The design and permitting is slated for completion by January, followed by construction bids and about 120 days  to complete the work, by his estimate, without the road ever having to close. The project has been FEMA-reimbursement qualified.

But a closure will be needed at some point on Metz Road, which is north of the Middleground community and connects to the paved portion of Two Chop Road. Four 60-inch pipe culverts were “compromised” by storm drainage, according to Nelson.

The proposal is to replace the culvert pipes and secure them by adding headwalls and replacing the shallow “surface treatment” pavement on top with a full asphalt-paved roadway section in just that spot.

“This project was not qualified by FEMA,” Nelson said. “However, the county, obviously, we’re going to endeavor to have this one completed as far as replacement.”

It should be done by around Memorial Day, he said.