Six tractor trailer rigs have delivered their loads to Fayetteville's First Manassas Mile Road water plant as the city prepares to decorate downtown roadways in floral splendor.

“This is a massive project,” said Sherri Anderson, director of the city's Main Street program. “There are two and a half acres worth of plants in the staging area. It's going to be just beautiful.”

Travelers on Ga. highways 54 and 85 should already see some evidence of the project, as the ground is plowed and crews began planting Thursday.

“They're going to try to put in about 150 trees a day, and it will take them about three weeks to get finished,” said Anderson.

The ambitious beautification project has been on the city's agenda for several months now. City Council recently approved spending $138,852 to put thousands of plants including crape myrtle, dwarf holly, barberry and many varieties of flowering perennials in the medians along Hwy. 54 from Gingercake Road all the way back to where 54 splits in downtown Fayetteville, on the east side of 54 to the city limits, and along Hwy. 85 from Jeff Davis Drive to Fayette Pavilion.

Landscape architect David Hollingsworth drew the plans and ordered the plants and his crews will put the trees, bushes and flowers in the ground.

Because of delays in getting state Department of Transportation approval, the project is getting underway later in the spring than the landscapers would have liked, but Anderson said the city is doing everything it can to make sure the plants get plenty of water.

“We have a 600-gallon water tank that's used to flush out pipes,” she said. “They'll need to be watered at least every other day.” City crews will fit the tank with a pressure reduction nozzle and water the medians as often as possible, she said.

Watering already is a problem, though the plants aren't yet in the ground. The only equipment available at the staging area is a garden hose, she said.

“It's hard to water two and a half acres with a garden hose,” she said.

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