Georgia sinkholes may not spread to house-swallowing size — like ones that have opened up in Florida in recent years — but the Georgia Department of Transportation doesn’t just dismiss them as random acts of nature. Every year, as part of preventive maintenance efforts, the DOT inspects one-fourth of the pipes in rights of way that serve interstates and state routes and, based on those inspections, relines or replaces pipe, district spokeswoman Teri Pope said. Last fiscal year, 1,115 feet of pipes were relined and 2,280 feet were replaced in the DOT’s District 1, or Northeast Georgia.