South Carolina is starting a $7 billion highway renovation project to modernize aging infrastructure and ease traffic
South Carolina is stepping up huge road projects to fix old routes and ease traffic as the state’s population grows quickly.
The head of South Carolina’s Department of Transportation (SCDOT), Justin Powell, has been to a lot of groundbreaking events. Powell has been with the agency for almost seven years and has seen how the state’s roads and facilities have changed a lot.
A project worth $825 million to widen a crowded 10-mile stretch of Interstate 95 and replace bridges over the Savannah River at the border with Georgia began on Thursday. The party was held in the Hardeeville welcome center, which was cool because it was August.
In South Carolina, highway spending is really taking off, and this project is just one part of it. The agency is about to spend more than $7 billion on building projects across the state, up from $2.7 billion on roads eight years ago. One of them is a $2 billion plan to make the tricky spot in Columbia where Interstates 20, 26, and 126 meet better.
There are also plans to add 70 miles to I-26 from Charleston to Columbia and to rebuild the half-loop of I-526 around Charleston, which could cost as much as $7 billion.
Once plagued by roads that weren’t taken care of, nearly half of the state’s 41,000 miles of pavement were in bad shape. A large part of the network has been repaved. In the meantime, thousands of old bridges are about to be replaced.
Since 1995, South Carolina’s population has grown by 1.5 million, and people are now complaining about traffic jams instead of potholes. “This is not little ol’ South Carolina anymore,” Powell said, pointing out how hard it is to keep up a road system that was made for a much smaller population.
The department has had a rough past with years of crime and political back-and-forth. But recent structural changes and more money, like a 12-cent gas tax hike, have given Powell’s agency the power to rebuild trust and make progress again.
Still, there are critics. Conservatives in the Freedom Caucus question how well the agency spends its money and want to use AI to make rules easier to understand. They also want to give counties more control over road upkeep. Powell likes the idea, but warns that ending almost 100 years of state rule would take time, money, and skill.
He said, “We reached this point after 90 years.” “I think it will take us that long to get out.”
