ATLANTA — As construction dust settles over the water main repairs that wreaked havoc across the city, Atlanta residents are expressing concerns over how quickly this could happen again.
"I think we need to send some people underground and see what's going on just to make sure," Donald Rowe told 11Alive.
"I think it's going to continue unless they get some professionals to come in and look at it to make sure it doesn't happen again," Gary Miller added.
That's why Mayor Andre Dickens is appointing a blue ribbon panel of experts that will be tasked with implementing solutions. The group includes:
- Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
- Atlanta Chamber of Commerce CEO Katie Kirkpatrick
- Three Georgia Tech engineering professors
- Retired Army Major General Ronald Johnson
"The mayor is a Georgia Tech alum. He's an engineer. He's thinking about this from a systems approach," said Johnson, current chief of staff and senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Georgia Tech. "I think Mayor Dickens was wise to put together this panel of experts."
Johnson served in the military for 32 years. He commanded a team with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the $18 billion reconstruction of Iraq.
"I was the commander that helped design contractors figure out what to do and that included the water infrastructure," he said. "From a strategic perspective, I know how the process works to get authorizations for these various projects and then how we have to do a lot of strategic planning and effort with Congress."
He hopes to do the same with Atlanta's aging infrastructure.
"How do you fix the infrastructure in a strategic way — not patching it — while people are still living and driving and moving around?" Johnson said. "We're stuck with the infrastructure we have, and all of it's underground... I may not see the results of it in my lifetime, but our future generations will see the benefits of this."
While they brainstorm and implement solutions, Johnson said these problems will likely continue to happen — though hopefully not of this magnitude. Atlanta reported roughly 500 leaks or breaks in the last year.
"It's not something that people should be panicked about. This is United States of America, we will figure out a way to overcome when people need water," he said. "What we should be thinking about right now is thank God it's fixed and now let's just hope that we can move forward in a strategic way and really invest in our infrastructure to fix it."