Cobb Water System Agency Archives

Mabry Road water main replacement

If you live along the Mabry Road area, or use it, brace yourselves for the next eight months. The long-awaited water main replacement project is beginning in early August.

It’s going to replace most of the existing aging line along Mabry, starting around 500 feet below Woodstock Road and all the way down to Shallowford Road, except for a small stretch of Mabry between Loch Highland Parkway and Outpost Court (as noted by the red star; see the map inset below).

A new line has already gone in there, and it will soon be connected by replacement lines totalling 13,600 feet. An eight-inch pipe will run from Shallowford to Loch Highland Parkway, and a new six-inch line will be installed from Huntridge Drive to 4540 Mabry Road.

Commissioner Bob Ott’s office sent out word Friday that construction south of the dam at Loch Highland will be on the west side of Mabry, in the shoulder and turn lanes.

North of the dam, the work will be on the east side under the sidewalk. At times, that sidewalk will be closed as the new lines are installed.

Mabry Road water main replacement

No pipes will be laid in the travel lanes along Mabry, but there will be occasional lane closures. Those generally will take place Monday-Friday from 9-4 or as otherwise publicized.

Ott’s office also said there may be some brief water outages in subdivision along or served by the Mabry lines and that he will put out notices and have signs in the area with details when that happens.

The work is tentatively scheduled for completion by the end of February 2020.

The $2.575 million project (fact sheet here) is being funded out of Cobb Water System Agency revenues. The contractor is Wade Coots Co. of Hiram.

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Cobb water bills will rise by an average of about $5 a month for residential customers after Cobb commissioners approved a rate increase on Tuesday.

The vote was 3-1, and the new rates will take effect on Sept. 1.

The bill for a homeowner consuming around 4,700 gallons a month will rise from $48.33 a month to $53.13 a month, according to calculations made by the Cobb County Water System (agenda item here).

Steven McCullers, the county water system director, said Cobb hasn’t had a rate increase since 2012. Since then, water purchase costs have risen by around 25 percent, and other operating costs also have gone up.

Water system revenues for the present year are around $220 million, but expenses are $239 million.

At a commissioners budget retreat in June, McCullers told commissioners that Cobb’s current rate structure is “not competitive,” and that the current level of service is “not sustainable” with the present rate structure.

County officials have said Cobb still has one of the lowest water rates in metro Atlanta even with the increase.

But Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell, the only vote against raising water rates, said she could not support an increase as long as Cobb continues to transfer 10 percent of water system revenues into the general fund.

Around $22 million in water revenues were transferred for county operations for the current fiscal year.

East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott was not present at Tuesday’s meeting. He was out of town representing the county at a technology conference.

The commission’s vote also includes changes in how water system development fees are calculated.

Here’s more on the new water system fee structure and other changes.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!