Community Corner

A New Bridge Opens Over Sope Creek

Traffic has reopened completely along Paper Mill Road after a five-month replacement project.

A gold 1929 Model A station wagon cranked up its engine and tooted an old-fashioned horn as it puttered across the Sope Creek Bridge on a glorious Friday afternoon, followed by a shiny red 1955 Chevy. 

The first two vehicles to traverse the new $2.5 million bridge on Paper Mill Road followed an official ribbon-cutting ceremony as dozens from the East Cobb community -- including nearby Sope Creek Elementary School -- celebrated. 

They were celebrating the end of five months of traffic headaches as much as anything else.

That section of Paper Mill Road was reopened to all traffic for the Friday afternoon commute. 

That area of the road and bridge were closed shortly after the school year ended in late May, and reopened on time.

Along the way, there were detours that bottlenecked East Cobb traffic more than usual as well as night-time and weekend bridge replacement work.

The replacement bridge, funded with money from the 2005 Cobb government SPLOST, was deemed necessary due to the decay of its 43-year-old predecessor. 

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Cobb County Manager David Hankerson admitted that while the project was a major inconvenience, "we probably received fewer complaints because we were upfront in communicating" with the public, and because the work was finished on schedule. 

While some finishing touches remain, a portion of Paper Mill Road that handles 8,000 vehicle trips a day is back in full service. 

East Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott said some intermittent lane closures will take place between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. next week for staining work on the stone undersurface of the bridge, as well as work on roadway approaches. 

Sope Creek students who won their individual grade competitions in a bridge drawing contest at the school participated in the ribbon-cutting with Principal Martha Whalen and Ott.

(See Ott's latest e-mail newsletter with the winning drawings.) 

The winners are: 

  • Kindergarten: Emma Flack
  • First Grade: Sanju Konduru
  • Second Grade: Claire Peterson
  • Third Grade: Catherine Papa
  • Fourth Grade: lhyeon Kim
  • Fifth Grade: Jack Reed

"We are thrilled it's going to be opened for Monday morning buses,"  Whalen said of the bridge. 


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