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House Members Support DOT Funding
“Accountable” SCDOT is ready for more funding
Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell said earlier this week that the House of Representatives is ready to tackle the issue of maintenance of the state’s roads and bridges as the sixth point in a seven-point agenda for this legislative year.
Speaking Wednesday April 1 on SCETV’s “This Week in the House” Harrell said House Bill 4549 is now on the House calendar. H.4549 would phase in revenue from the existing sales tax on vehicles to the South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Bank to fund new projects, and the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) for the purpose of maintaining roads and bridges that receive no federal aid. Approximately 27,000 miles of the state’s 42,000-mile highway system do not qualify for federal funds.
Harrell said this plan is better than raising the state gas tax or eliminating the sales tax exemption on fuel. “This measure diverts an existing revenue stream into the maintenance of our highways without raising taxes and putting an additional burden on our taxpayers,” said Harrell.
House District 98 Representative Annette Young also appearing on “This Week in the House” said that the SCDOT Restructuring Act passed last year is working to make the agency more accountable and credited Transportation Secretary H.B. “Buck” Limehouse Jr. for turning SCDOT around. Young said, “Buck Limehouse understands the real need is getting the money out on the roads.” She pointed to a recent State of SCDOT report that Limehouse made to a legislative committee that showed he had reduced costs and cut waste for a present total of $18 million. Young said that Limehouse has clearly made SCDOT more accountable, and the time is right for the funding provided in H.4549.
Speaker Harrell pointed to Secretary Limehouse’s moves to eliminate Washington lobbyists, increased use of less expensive inmate labor and limiting travel by SCDOT staff as some of the savings that have taken place at the agency.
This entire April 1 edition of SCETV’s “This Week in the House” can be seen in streaming video on the SCETV web site.
Details concerning additional funds for SCDOT proposed in H.4549 can be found here.
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Plan uses $1 billion to build, fix roads
Highway safety, new and old projects could receive funding
Published: Monday, January 7, 2008 - 2:00 am
By Tim Smith
CAPITAL BUREAU
tcsmith@greenvillenews.com
COLUMBIA -- Senate leaders have proposed a road-funding plan that could provide $1 billion to fix and build roads and bridges in South Carolina. Passage of such a proposal, while not a certainty given a tight budget and a bevy of competing interests, could help the state address a multi-billion-dollar backlog of road and bridge work that has grown in recent years in the face of nearly flat gas-tax revenue and debt payments for a costly accelerated road construction program. "My constituents are telling me that they appreciate the tax relief, but they want something done to our roads and bridges," said Rep. Bob Walker of Landrum. Sen. Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican, said increased funding would help address the safety issue of bad roads. "There's rarely a week that goes by in the Upstate," he said, "that we don't hear about a teenager or an older person whose car has run off the shoulder, they overcorrect, flip over, and that's it." The plan, to be championed by Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell and similar to one proposed last year by House Speaker Bobby Harrell, both of Charleston, would transfer about $90 million collected from the sales tax on cars from the general fund to the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank. The money would be used annually to pay back as much as $1 billion that would be borrowed, McConnell said. The proceeds would then be split between the bank, which funds major road and bridge projects in the state, and the state Department of Transportation, which could use the money to work on existing roads not eligible for Infrastructure Bank funding. "I think the declining infrastructure in South Carolina is a huge concern of the public," McConnell said, adding that he believes the plan is "doable and will meet the least resistance." McConnell has already filed the legislation, also sponsored by Sen. Larry Grooms of Berkeley County, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. Harrell last year proposed splitting car sales tax revenue between DOT and the infrastructure bank and is expected to push for that again, a spokesman said. Harrell did not address leveraging the money for bonds last year, his spokesman said. Giving the Infrastructure Bank a major new infusion of cash could also benefit the Lowcountry, which has projects from Berkeley and Dorchester counties approved but not yet funded by the bank. The legislation comes amid cries from business and legislators to finish what lawmakers started last year in a road funding debate. Immersed in legislation to reform DOT, lawmakers last year also considered a House plan to send up to $600 million to DOT over a five-year period. But Senate negotiators balked at the plan, arguing its method of deducting the funds off the top of state revenue each year was too risky. At the end of the session, legislators stripped out any new revenue proposals from the reform package. But the issue of road funding did not go away. During lawmakers' recess, a coalition of groups with an interest in the state's roads renamed itself the South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads and began talking to lawmakers about the need for increased funding. "We have a huge funding crisis for our highway system," said Deborah Bass, executive director of the group. "We can't maintain the roads we have right now because the money is going to Washington for federal match. It's been 20 years since we had a user fee increase. This state couldn't survive if we had to go another 20 years waiting on additional funding." She said her group isn't advocating any particular source of funding and doesn't believe adding several pennies to the current gas tax will be enough. Just recently, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce listed road funding as one of its priorities and said it favors an increase in the state's gas tax. "It's going to have a huge impact on the state's economy if it's not addressed soon," Bass said. "Businesses and industry are not going to locate in our state if they cannot move their goods and services safely." Sen. Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and one of those backing the multi-billion-dollar Interstate 73 project through the Pee Dee to Myrtle Beach, said he agrees the issue needs to be addressed. "Our roads and bridges are crumbling before our very eyes," he said. "We've got to provide more money to DOT, however we provide it." But Leatherman questioned whether transferring a revenue stream out of the General Fund in a tight budget year is possible. "What program are we going to reduce?" he asked.
Roads-less-traveled will be upgraded : Article Source: The State
By CLIF LeBLANC - cleblanc@thestate.com
Many more of Lexington County’s less-traveled, cut-through roads are going to be improved thanks to a new way of deciding which streets get federal aid.
The formula that will provide $12.6 million for about 40 miles of secondary roads also settles a long-held debate among local officials — Lexington has more deteriorated roads than other counties.
“Based on the information I have, it just goes to show you that Lexington County roads are worse than other roads in the state,” said John Fechtel, Lexington’s public works director.
The latest ranking by the S.C. Transportation Department found that 15 of the state’s 27 secondary roads most in need of repair are in Lexington County.
That amounts to about 56 percent of all the state’s secondaries that fall under what the agency calls a “rehabilitation” program. Small amounts of the nearly $13 million also will be spent to resurface or “preserve” roads that need minor improvements.
A secondary road usually connects primary highways, but some are well-traveled as connectors in residential and commercial areas. About 450 miles of Lexington’s 1,200 miles of secondary roads are eligible for federal spending, state transportation officials said.
The windfall for Lexington was prompted by a new law the state Legislature enacted this year, said Tony Chapman, the state agency’s chief highway engineer. The statute set uniform statewide road improvement standards that previously had been left to regional transportation planners.
Jim Feda, state director of road maintenance, said the old system resulted in little money going to secondary roads, and the funds were allotted by transportation districts, not by counties. Lexington rarely received any such money.
The funding formula also was changed this year so that pavement condition and traffic volumes became more heavily weighted, he said. The federal money will upgrade 40 roads — 19 to be improved during fiscal year 2008, and 21 during the second year of funding.
The regions of Lexington County to benefit most are:
• The towns of Cayce, West Columbia and South Congaree
• St. Andrews Road/Irmo communities
• The town of Lexington and its immediate vicinity
In Richland County, four secondaries are scheduled for $821,000 in upgrades on 1.75 miles of roads.
Yet Richland has the state’s worst secondary road eligible for this money — a half-mile stretch of Westmore Drive, off S.C. 277 near I-20, that must be rebuilt.
During 2009, two short stretches of Lexington roads will receive $707,000 to be stripped to their bases and rebuilt.
The first phase of construction of roads on the list is likely to start next spring and take about two fiscal years to complete or until the money runs out, Feda said. The money will pay for segments of roads, some as short as 100 feet.
The first stretch slated for repairs is about 4.4 miles of Longs Pond, Pisgah Church and Charter Oaks roads near Lexington High School.
The millions Lexington will receive dwarfs the $842,450 the county got for secondary road improvements the last two fiscal years, Transportation Department figures show. That money repaired 3.5 miles of roads. “You can bet Lexington is going to get a good package from this,” said Chapman, the state agency’s chief highway engineer.
County Council chairman Billy Derrick welcomes any help to improve roads.
Drivers in the growing county constantly demand better roads while construction costs continue to rise and public funds run short, he said. “If we can get federal dollars to help fix some of our roads, I’m all for that,” Derrick said. “I wish we could get more state money.”
Pressures for more money prompted a meeting earlier this month with S.C. Transportation chief Buck Limehouse.
He told Midlands politicians and business leaders they must chip in if they want road improvements faster.
Limehouse delivered a blunt message: They might have to consider raising local sales taxes, establishing toll roads or pushing developers to help more.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664.
| REPAIR PRIORITY LIST | The 10 worst secondary roadsin Lexington County The 10 worst secondary roads* in Lexington County, the order in which they will be upgraded and the projected costs of each:
Road name ........ Length ........ Expense
Longs Pond/Pisgah Church, Charter Oaks roads, 4.4 miles, $1,226,400
Industrial Drive (at Zenker Road, S.C. 6), 0.67 miles, $187,600
Old Cherokee Road (U.S. 378, S.C. 6), 0.60 miles, $336,000
Nursery Hill Road (at Wescot, Nursery roads), 0.9 miles, $252,000
Old Orangeburg Road (off Old Barnwell Road), 0.12 miles, $33,600
Old Dunbar Road (at U.S. 21, S.C. 302), 3 miles, $837,200
North Eden Drive (at U.S. 21, Elm St./Shady Ln), 1.1 miles, $310,800
“L” Avenue (S.C. 35, U.S. 21), 0.5 miles, $151,200
St. David’s Church Road (at St. David’s, U.S. 1), 0.25 miles, $64,400
Bush River Road (at Rockland Road, I-20), 0.86 miles, $476,000 * Among the county’s secondaries eligible for federal aid SOURCE: S.C. Department of Transportation | SCDOT NEWS RELEASE: SCDOT Update on the Status of Bridges in SC South Carolina has no structures of the type that failed in Minneapolis In light of the tragic event that occurred Wednesday in Minnesota, the South Carolina Department of Transportation’s (SCDOT) Secretary of Transportation-nominee H.B. “Buck” Limehouse, Jr. has issued the following update concerning the status of South Carolina’s bridges. • SCDOT maintains and inspects a total of 8,330 bridges. Of those structures, 1,033 are structurally deficient. A “Structurally Deficient” bridge is one that is defined as: When the condition of the bridge does not meet the standards of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). However, this does not imply that the bridge is unsafe, or needs to have the load restricted.
• SCDOT maintains 776 bridges that are classified as Functionally Obsolete. A “Functionally Obsolete” bridge does not meet the FHWA codes for providing a certain level of service. One example is an older bridge that has lanes that are narrower than today’s standards.
• Substandard Bridges are structures that may be both structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. However, if that bridge falls into both classifications, only the “Structurally Deficient” criteria are counted. The total of “Substandard Bridges in South Carolina stands at 1,809. This number is found by adding the total of “Structurally Deficient” and “Functionally Obsolete” bridges.
• SCDOT engineers have placed 138 bridges in the category of “Load Restricted,” meaning vehicles surpassing the maximum weight allowed on one of these bridges are prohibited from using the bridge.
• SCDOT engineers have declared 10 bridges in the state highway system closed to all traffic. SCDOT conducts a regular schedule of inspections on all bridges in the state highway system as required by the FHWA for all states. These codes have been in effect since the 1970s. The schedule is as follows:
• All non-load restricted bridges are inspected every two years.
• All load-restricted bridges are inspected every year.
• Bridges with underwater pilings are supposed to be inspected every five years according to FHWA codes. However, SCDOT’s policy is to examine bridges of this type every four years. SCDOT makes over 6,000 inspections per year of state-owned structures. This number includes those bridges that are monitored more frequently to ensure the safety of the public. Additionally, SCDOT performs approximately 65 underwater inspections per year. The current financial need for SCDOT to replace the current list of Structurally Deficient and Functionally Obsolete bridges over a period of 20 years is approximately $2.9 billion. Limehouse said, “South Carolina has a critical need for funding in terms of maintaining the bridges and highways in our state, but we are doing everything possible to make sure that all bridges can be used safely.” He added, “Safety is our highest priority, and no one in South Carolina will travel over a bridge this unsafe to use.” ### JPP
8/02/07
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