Cash for roads hits dead end

By Charles Sowell  

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 11:25 a.m. (0)

Decades of low tax zeal and heavy growth have produced an infrastructure maintenance deficit in Spartanburg and Greenville counties, state highway officials said this week.

The two counties combined need about $384 million in state funds and $11 million in federal funds to resurface and maintain state and federal roads.

State money for resurfacing is zero, said Jason Allison, maintenance engineer for the Department of Transportation District 3 which includes Oconee, Pickens, Greenville and Spartanburg counties.

“The paving work you see going on now is finishing up on contracts that were let last year,” he said. “This is the time of year that we would normally be putting together our lists for next year’s work. Because of state cutbacks no work is planned for next year unless something extraordinary happens.”

If funding were at normal levels and there were no further degeneration of roads it would take more than 20 years to catch up, he said.

About 50 years ago, when many bridges now considered in severe need of work were built, traffic levels were about 20 percent of today’s levels, Allison said. Statewide estimates show traffic numbers up 41 percent from 1990 to 2007.

“The numbers are just crazy,” Allison said. “And things could get a lot worse quickly if we have another winter with ice and snow.”

Last winter’s snowstorm which left roads ice covered for about a week aged the road system by years, he said.

Statewide, according to a survey by the American Society of Civil Engineers, 23 percent of road bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Locally, Allison said, the numbers are grim. District 3 has about 1,300 bridges that are maintained by the state.

Of that number 497 need work, and 174 of those structures are so deficient they need immediate repair or replacement.

“I have one crew that is dedicated to bridge repair,” he said. “They can reasonably be expected to repair four to five bridges a year. You can do the math on that and see we’re way behind and falling further back with each year.”

Civil engineers say there are 153 high hazard dams where failure would cause loss of life and significant property damage. At least 26 of them are located in Greenville and Spartanburg counties.

South Carolina’s drinking water infrastructure needs an investment of $1.25 billion during the next 20 years, the engineers report. Local figures for needed water work were unavailable, but Greenville and Spartanburg generally are considered to have modern water systems.

The state also has $698 million in wastewater infrastructure needs.