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ZEBULON - McKinley Road between Hwy. 19 and New Hope Road in Pike County has been closed to thru traffic to make road repairs. Extensive work has been done to this section of road, but there are still issues with the base of the road. The initial estimate for the closure would be for about two weeks, but much depends on the weather this week.
It was noted in the June 13, 2018 Board of Commissioners Meeting that the surface of the road had pushed up overnight and that there was a safety issue. A company was contacted to find out of there is a spring under the road or what could be causing the disturbance to the top of the road. A year ago, debris was removed from under the road before it was repaved.
According to a study performed by Piedmont Geotechnical Consultants, Inc., hand auger borings encountered issues that are being addressed by Pike County Public Works now. The opinion given on this section of road found that the failing pavement was due to "subgrade material variablility, pooerly placed and compacted fill materials, and elevated moisture contents... The unevenness, dips and pumping of the road indicate wet of optimum placed fills or possible isolated consolidation of the poorly compacted previously placed fill."
Their recommendation was that the culvert be removed and replaced as well as the asphalt being removed and at least one foot of the soils beneath it being removed. Then they recommended proofrolling with a fully loaded 20-ton tandem axle dump truck under the observation of an experienced geotechnical engineer to determine if additional undercutting was needed.
Final road recommendations included uncutting a minimum of 2 to 3 feet on unstable areas and backfilling with "baby surge" as well as placing a non-woven filter fabric between the subgrade and stone. They recommended a GDOT medium duty paving section for the replacement of the roadway.
Pike County Times thanks Pike County Public Works for quickly forwarding this information through the County Commission Office in answer to my open records request as well as not being shocked when I showed up (again) on a road project without prior notice so I could take the pictures that accompany this article. I actually took these photos late last week as the rock was being placed on the road.
