South Carolina has a 10-year plan underway to tackle deferred maintenance and safety needs across the state. The plan was initiated in 2017 and focuses on the areas of greatest need: pavement conditions, bridges, rural road safety, and some interstates.
Pavements/Resurfacing
The state is working to improve poor pavement conditions and eradicate countless potholes on interstates as well as the primary routes that connect our cities, towns, as well as secondary roads. To date, over 8,800 miles of roads have been addressed in all 46 counties. And, there is much work to be done.
State dollars play a critical role in funding repairs and maintenance, and they are a key source of revenue for the pavement program. In fact, the majority of the revenues (over 80%) in the Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund (IMTF) are dedicated to pavement improvements.
Remember, 80% of the state’s pavements are in need of repair and it would cost $11 billion to get all pavements in the system to good condition. It will take roughly 20 years before the vast majority of pavements are in good shape across the state.
Bridge Replacements
The state is working to replace 500 bridges, many of which are load-restricted and cannot be used by school buses or larger trucks. Using state and federal dollars, South Carolina will be investing approximately $220 million annually on bridge improvements.
At the current investment levels, the state is averaging roughly 50 bridge projects per year.
Many bridges across the state are aging out of their intended lifespan. Currently, there are over 2,400 bridges that are 60 years old or older, and that number is expected to grow to 3,900 over the next decade.
Rural Road Safety Program
South Carolina has the highest rural road fatality rate in the nation. As such, the rural road safety program uses targeted data to identify and implement needed safety features on 1,250 miles of the state’s deadliest roads. Over 1,000 miles (and counting) of improvements have been made since the program was started in 2017.
The types of safety improvements will vary and will be designed specifically for each road. They include rumble strips, wider and brighter pavement markings, brighter signs, high-friction surface treatments, wider/paved shoulders, improved clear zones, guardrails, cable barriers, eliminating vertical drop-offs along pavement edges and beveling of driveway pipes.
Interstate Capacity
Using a “Fix it First” approach, SCDOT is currently working to improve and expand existing interstates in urban and rural areas of the state. Work is underway on nearly every interstate in South Carolina.
Source: Interstate Modernization Map presented to the SCDOT Commission, May 2024.
The Rural Interstate Freight Network Mobility Improvement Program (est. 2018) identified rural sections of the interstate system with a focus on freight density and improving mobility. (These rural improvements are in addition to previously approved interstate widening projects planned for the urban areas of the state.)
- I-26 – Exit 125 to Exit 169 (43 miles)
- I-95 – Georgia Line to Exit 33 (33 miles)
- I-26 – Exit 169 to Exit 187 (18 miles)
- I-85 – Georgia Line to Exit 19 (19 miles)
- I-77 – Exit 65 to Exit 77 (12 miles)
In 2022, the SC legislature allocated approximately $453 million in ARPA allocations to the SCDOT, which will be used to accelerate the widening of I-26 between Columbia and Charleston. They also provided a one-time budget allocation of $133.6 million to accelerate the projects in the pipeline specifically on I-95 beginning at the Georgia border.