LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — With people hitting the road for their summer vacations, more people may be looking for rest areas this time of year.
Carlos Sanchez says they are a necessity for truck drivers.
"You have to stop for the regulations. You should drive for 11 hours, so if you don't stop your cart, you are in trouble," Sanchez said.
Sanchez was looking for a place to park and was disappointed to find Laurens County's I-16 rest areas have been closed for 3 months.
"Upon some serious searching, we found a water break," City of Dublin's Utility Director Michael Clay said.
They noticed low water pressure coming from the pipeline that runs under Turkey Creek.
"We think over the past 10 years, somewhere it probably sat on a rock and irritated it until it caused a rupture in the line," Clay said.
It's taken their crews two months to find the rupture, but now they're working as fast as they can to fix it.
"Right now we're meeting with a contractor. He's already ordered his material, his pipe, and I'm hoping that it'll all start rolling, and we'll get started within the next two weeks," Clay said.
They're going to put in a new water line that's made of sturdier material, which should hold for 40 to 50 years.
"If the drill goes successful, because we're drilling about 1800 feet. If the drill goes successful, we should be able to get it in within a seven-day time period," Clay said.
They should have the rest areas opened back up by the end of June. Clay says it cost over $400,000 to fix the water line break.