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Ledan Extension could reopen this week
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Ledan Extension, damaged by strong rains in mid-October, may be reopened by Wednesday. - photo by Tom Reed
Ledan Extension motorists might want to hope for a dry spell.

A stretch of the northwest Hall Road that has been closed since mid-October after strong rains could reopen by Wednesday, if dry weather prevails.

“It depends on if the weather will cooperate with me and we don’t have another surprise rain shower come in here,” Kem Smith, Hall County assistant public works director, said on Thursday.

As of Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service in Peachtree City was predicting mostly favorable conditions ahead.

Sunny skies, with high temperatures reaching 75 by today, were in the forecast.

The next chance for rain comes Tuesday, when there’s a 20 percent chance of showers. The same is expected for Wednesday.

“I’m hoping the rain’s out for a while,” Smith said. “I’ve had enough.”

He said he “just asks the people to bear with us. We’re working hard to try to get (the road fixed). We apologize for the inconvenience that we might have caused, but I have no control over the weather.”

Frequent and often hard rains in late September and October have punished roadways and swollen creeks and streams.

On Oct. 12, heavy rain damaged Ledan Extension west of Cha Co Road. Ledan Extension runs between Sardis and Cool Springs roads.

“The creek was swollen from the rain. The water took the end of the culvert pipe off and blocked the culvert, which undermined and washed out the whole road,” Smith said earlier.

On Thursday, he said the new pipe is in place.

“And we’re halfway up with our dirt, but every time we get to working real good, the rain rolls in here,” he said.

“We have to go through a compaction test with our engineering firm to make sure (the dirt) ... is going to hold up,” Smith said. “When the dirt gets wet, we (can’t work on) it — we have to let it dry out.”

The goal was to have the road paved and open week before last, “but every time we set a goal, it rains.”

The Hall County area received more than 4 inches of rain between Tuesday and Wednesday morning in advance of storms along the Gulf Coast.

“It quit raining (Wednesday) and we thought it would be gone and give us all afternoon to dry out, then (by nightfall) we got another shower in here that wet the dirt again,” Smith said.