Secretary of Transportation Presents 2018 "State of SCDOT"
Secretary of Transportation Christy A. Hall presented the "State of SCDOT" report for 2018 to the Senate Transportation Committee on February 7, 2018. The annual review provided the current status of South Carolina’s transportation network, including the impact of the new revenue generated by the passage of the Roads Bill in 2017 and highlights of SCDOT’s "10-Year Plan to Rebuild Our Roads."
Hall told the Committee members, "The SCDOT Team is very focused on our Plan and understands the public’s expectations that we put the taxpayer dollars to good use."
To illustrate that point, Hall reported the following items:
- SCDOT is currently at its highest level of construction over the past decade, and at the same time, more and more projects are being planned and designed.
- Currently SCDOT has approximately $3 billion in road and bridge work on the streets. This figure represents three times the level of work the agency was able to provide just a few short years ago.
- SCDOT’s top priority programs are rural road safety, resurfacing, bridge projects and interstate widening projects.
- South Carolina is ranked #1 in the nation in highway fatalities. The goal is to tackle 100 miles of the "worst-of-the worst" roads in each year. SCDOT Maintenance units have already begun that work.
- SCDOT plans to double the paving program by incrementally increasing it each year to match the phasing in of the gas tax increase. Each county will see a dramatic increase in these projects over the next 10 years. Since July 1, SCDOT has awarded contracts to cover 1300 miles of resurfacing on 1525 roads in every county in the state.
- Bridges: The 10-year plan includes an aggressive bridge replacement program focused on eliminating all load-restricted bridges in the state. The total 10-year target is the replacement of 465 bridges.
- Interstate widenings: The major projects that are a decade overdue are now in progress; I85/I385 Greenville, I26/1526 Charleston and "Malfunction Junction" in the Columbia area.
Hall summed up her report by stating she is a firm believer in continuous improvement.
She pointed to several transformative efforts conducted over the last two years. "We have adopted LAC recommendations, a structural efficiencies study, established strategic priorities and performance measures, increased internal and external communications, improved outreach and revamped customer service training. Working with a strong internal audits team has led to additional improvements and assurances at SCDOT, said Hall.