ForConstructionPros.com

During the week, State Road 9 north of Dahlonega, GA handles average traffic levels for a rural state road, but on weekends this scenic windy road takes a pounding as motorists head for mountain vacation homes.

The increased traffic levels have taken its toll on the asphalt structure, causing surface stresses compounded by more severe full-depth structural problems. Georgia Department of Transportation felt it was time to correct the structural problems and also improve the overall road integrity and ride earlier this year when it contracted with C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. to repair and improve a 10-mile section of the road from Dahlonega north across the Chestatee River.

"It's a two-lane rural state road with an average width of 22 feet, and it's wider on some of the curves," notes Marty Booker, general superintendent in charge of Matthews' interstate and other major highway paving projects. "Our biggest challenge on this project is maintaining safe traffic flow since there are a lot of hills and curves to navigate for our paving crews, the truckers supplying the asphalt and the motoring public that rely on the road."

To prepare the road for its new surface, Matthews, a 60-year-old contracting firmed headquartered in Marietta that specializes in road construction, bridge construction and commercial site work, contracted with the Miller Group to address the full-depth patch work required to fix some of the structural problems identified during the DOT's road analysis.

"We use a pavement evaluation system to visually inspect our roads on a regular basis," notes Chuck Davis, GDOT Area 4 engineer. "On this particular stretch of SR 9 we were beginning to see some load cracking, transverse cracking and edge distress. It's a road that has experienced increase traffic levels, with approximately 10-percent truck traffic. The road receives increased usage during the summer from tourists and recreational campers. It was just time to correct some of the structural problems, as well as the cross slope and rutting."