Tinsel Town has its big HOLLYWOOD sign in the hills, Las Vegas has the gaudy neon sign as you enter its city limits and Cumming has a “Welcome to Forsyth County” wall at the busy intersection of McGinnis Ferry Road and Windward Parkway, however, it’s falling down.
Although built in 2004 by the developer of the Flynn Crossing Shopping Center and deeded to the county as part of the zoning approval process, the wall should have had a minimum life expectancy of about 30 years. But only a year after it was built, bulging was noticed and the top five feet had to be reconstructed and reinforced.
Fast forward to mid-2017, about a month after engineers reported excessive bulging and lateral movement of the façade, a nearly 60 foot section of the wall came crashing down, forcing county officials to close the access road to the shopping center. It has remained closed while county engineers figured out why it happened and how to fix it.
An engineering firm hired by Forsyth County determined that the construction methods used to build the wall by a now defunct construction company was, according to their report, “significantly different” from the plans submitted to the county prior to construction.
The replacement wall is to be constructed of reinforced concrete at a cost of more than $800,000. According to Program Manager Jason McCook of Moreland-Altobelli Associates the project has its challenges. In addition to stabilizing the hillside by driving 50-foot soil nails into earth and connecting them to a new concrete façade. The top of the wall will include an improved drainage system to redirect rain water and prevent erosion.
Forsyth County Director of Engineering says they had originally estimated the reconstruction at about $500,000. However, the first round of bids came back around double that amount. Rebidding it and negotiating with the low-bidding construction company, Hayward-Baker Inc. of Alpharetta helped bring it down from the million dollar mark to the final $837,000 figure. As he explains it, the amount of construction in the Atlanta area coupled with the limited number of companies specializing in building walls drives up the cost.
“Construction in general is just high now,” he said.
Work is expected to begin this month and barring any unforeseen issues, the new Welcome to Forsyth County Wall and that access point to shopping could be completed around year’s end.
As for the longevity of the new wall, the county’s assistant engineering director is optimistic that this time the wall will be built to last. Tim Allen said confidently, “…75 years or so, it should be there a long time.”
