Changes to Woodland Brook Drainage Project

Cobb County’s District 2 Engineer Bryan Ricks told a crowd of about 50 Vinings residents that there would be some changes to the Woodland Brook Drainage Project. Yes, the road will still be closed for four to six weeks this summer, but the scope of the project has been narrowed, which no longer requires the contractor to raise the road.

at a . The original plan called for the replacement of the dual 48-inch pipes that run beneath Woodland Brook Drive to be replaced with a 25-foot by 8.5-foot bottomless arch culvert. However, Ricks said in the new plan the culvert will be about 25 feet by 6.5 feet.

“The reason we’re not raising the road is in meeting with the neighbors in Brandy Station we kind of talked about it and it was going to be a huge impact on their neighborhood entrance and everything else and the reality was what we were doing really wasn’t going to solve a big flood out of the (Chattahoochee) River,” said District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott. “There was really no reason to raise the road and so we scaled the project back.”

Ott and Ricks said that because the scope of the project was narrowed they were awaiting a new cost estimate from the contractor and could not offer an official start date for the project. However, Ott told the residents to expect construction to begin shortly after Cobb County schools let out for summer on May 24.

Ott advised residents to sign up for e-updates at his website, which are emailed each week and will notify residents about the project’s progress. The road will be closed for four to six weeks this summer and Ott said the goal was to have Woodland Brook Drive open to traffic again before school begins August. 13. While the road is closed, residents will have to make use of a detour route:

Southbound Woodland Brook Drive:

North and then west on Paces Ferry Road to Cumberland Parkway

South on Cumberland Parkway to Beech Haven Trail/Log Cabin Drive

South and then east on Beech Haven Trail/Log Cabin Drive to Woodland Brook Drive

Northbound Woodland Brook Drive:

West and then north on Log Cabin/Beech Haven Trail to Cumberland Parkway

North on Cumberland Parkway to Paces Ferry Road

East and then south on Paces Ferry Road to Woodland Brook Drive

Residents can also use Randall Farm Road as a detour. Ott said that Cobb County emergency response teams have been made aware of the pending road closure and have alternate plans to access the affected areas. He also noted that the speed humps on Randall Farm Road should prevent speeders along the detour route.