The Cherry Blossom Festival is days away, and many people are getting ready to take a bus or self tour down the Cherry Blossom Trail. This year, people have to take a detour because of a partial road closure.
At the corner of Guerry Drive and Oxford Road, trees are blooming. Homeowner Rocky Davidson says a few feet away, detour signs hang and catch people's attention.
"We've have a big hole behind here that's covered up with steel plates," said Davidson.
Macon-Bibb Public Works Director Marvin Land says it's been that way for about three to four months. He says the road has had issues for nearly a year and caved in because a storm water drainage pipe failed due to old age.
Neighbors like Meyer Samet say they're concerned because the detour signs push traffic to roads they live on.
"The caving in of the street has stopped traffic on Oxford Road completely. It has re-routed it through Oxford Circle," said Samet.
Davidson says he was hopeful repairs on Oxford Road would be done in time for the festival.
"It's really bad for the Cherry Blossom Festival and everything because the buses generally come all through here and get to see all the trees, and this is probably one of the prettiest streets," said Davidson.
County Engineer David Fortson says the project to fix the road is going to cost about $270,000.
Fortson says the process took time because the county needed to have discussions with the legal department about who was responsible for fixing the road. Samet says he just wants to see progress soon.
"I've lost my confidence. They told me it'd be fixed by January and it's March and they haven't even started so I'm not putting my eggs in that basket right now," said Samet.
Fortson says his office plans to contract the work out but there's a process. He says they have bids from contractors interested in completing the work, but the contract has to be approved by Macon-Bibb County Commissioners. Fortson expects the road to be completely fixed in about four months. If you do see a problem for public works to fix, you can report it at seeclickfix.com.