David Spear with the Georgia Department of Transportation says they're talking to the Governor and the Department of Natural Resources and contractors.

"It's approaching a level where you could see some real impacts on projects where they're just gonna have to start delaying things. We're not there yet. Hopefully, we won't get there, but it's on the horizon," said Spear.

Water is needed for mixing concrete, controlling dust, and for controlling erosion.

"We can't be allowing our streams and watersheds to be silted by our projects. That requires, ironically I suppose, the ability to put some hay and vegetation down to control that," said Spear.

Spear says contractors don't usually want rain in the forecast.

"Ideally, from the contractors' perspective, we love when it doesn't rain because it means they can go out and get their work done. We've certainly had more than enough of a good thing in terms of absence of rain for a while. We'd all take a few shut down construction days if it meant we were going to get some decent rain," said Spear.

On Tuesday, an audit found that other states, on average, complete the preconstruction phase of road construction nearly two years more quickly than Georgia does.

November 1, 2007