Eight months after October's flood, 94 percent of the state’s roads and bridges have been repaired. Of the 541 originally damaged, less than 35 now remain to be fixed. Several were just re-opened in Richland and Lexington Counties in recent weeks, though Department of Transportation Chief Engineer of Operations of the Department of Transportation (DOT) Andy Leaphart is clear that there are more counties affected: "we have closures in Clarendon, Williamsburg still, Newberry county still has some, so we're working all across the state. It's not concentrated in any way in Richland and Lexington. They've had a lot of closures, there are a lot of bridges to fix here." Tut Underwood reports on the path remaining to zero bridges in need of repair.
Of the 35 damaged bridges and roads, only 12 are under control of the DOT. Leaphart says, "we feel like most of 'em will be done by the end of the year." Many of the remaining roads will be a greater challenge though, says Leaphart, given they're on dams they don't own. Robby Isgett is a construction engineer in District One. He explains, "the biggest problem with the remaining few is just the coordination between DHEC [Department of Health and Environmental Control], the dam owners, and all the associated agencies, and just figuring out the ownership issue and the responsibility for the roadway."
He says figuring that out will take time. Leaphart adds that it's not just about getting the agencies together, but figuring out who owns these small dams: "In some cases, we're trying to determine who that owner is, it may have been several generations. Granddad owned the property, he deeded it down... and folks never realized they owned a dam." The DOT is not able make any repairs on land it doesn't control without contact with the owners. It's in contact with many small dam owners now.
For other bridges affected by the flood, the damage wasn't immediate. Leaphart explains how the department discovered latent damage, saying "as we continued to do our follow-up inspections, we found out that a lot of the stream bed had eroded and didn't have the support structure there that we needed to keep that bridge open."
A monthly project report is posted on the department’s website.
Update: from South Carolina Morning Headlines on September 9, 2016
Almost 1 year after more than 50 dams were breached during the floods of October 2015, state regulators want more rules for dams and dam owners.
State lawmakers, however, question if any additional new rules are needed.
