Work has started to see what lies under heavily traveled Green Street in Gainesville.

Southeastern Engineering Inc. of Marietta has been looking at the road — a frequent bottleneck that’s also prone to flooding during heavy rains — and plans to send letters to property owners saying they should be on the lookout for survey crews.

“(Workers) may be going onto property to follow drainage structures and see where they lead to,” city project manager Rhonda Brady said Tuesday.

The stretch of Green Street being studied runs between E.E. Butler Parkway/Academy Street and the fork at Thompson Bridge Road/Ga. 60 and Morningside Drive.

Officials have long discussed potential solutions to traffic woes along the two-lane, historic home-lined stretch, including a ban on left turns.

The road is especially busy as it serves as a key link between downtown and northern portions of Gainesville and North Hall County.

The city has been talking with the Georgia Department of Transportation about looking under the road’s pavement.

Finding a suitable engineering firm was tricky, Gainesville Public Works Director David Dockery has said.

“It’s going to be a pretty comprehensive study just to give us an idea of what we’re dealing with there,” he said.

Ultimately, the city hopes the $200,000 project not only will uncover the road’s past but give ideas as to how to fix traffic.

“We’ll have a recommendation … from whatever they discover,” Brady said.

The project could take a year to complete. Road closures aren’t expected at this point.