-David Crowder, WRGA News-
Stabilization work continues on the Historic Floyd County Courthouse following the March 23 fire.
The question on everyone’s mind is….When will the streets around the courthouse reopen?
“We currently have kind of a May 22 date for the opening of the roads,” said Floyd County Manager Jamie McCord. “However, I’m hoping that is a little conservative, and they will open a little sooner. If everything goes perfectly, it could be as early as late next week.”
McCord told us a little about the work that has already been done.
“The contractor got mobilized, got moved in, and removed all of the coping and loose brick,” he said. “There are some gable ends that have been removed on the building where the roof structure no longer exists, and the brick is unstable. The two walls in the courtroom—the big courtroom that was immediately behind the bell tower have been removed. We are still monitoring some cracks on the Tribune Street side.”
The stabilization work is about to enter its final process.
“We have a design that was completed last week, for lack of a better term, banding,” McCord said. “About 45 feet up, we will have a band placed around it. You should see some scaffolding going up this week, and the banding could begin as early as Friday. That is kind of the last step in the process to get it secured, with the primary goal to get the roads back open. I know it’s a big disruption. Anytime you close a river crossing in Rome and Floyd County, it’s going to be a disruption.”
All of the work has been covered by insurance.
