South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is asking lawmakers to give the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) $500 million to rebuild or repair more than 500 deteriorating bridges in the state.
"There's no more infrastructure more in need of investment than our state's roads and bridges, highways and interstates," McMaster said in a statement.
Gov. McMaster recommends reallocating $500 million in surplus property tax funds to SCDOT.
"The 2023 South Carolina Department of Transportation Annual Accountability Report highlights the need for additional resources to repair and rebuild nearly 9000 bridges on primary and secondary roads across our state," McMaster said.
Twenty-one bridges in the Lowcountry are classified as structurally deficient, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders' Association.
Some of those include the US 17 Northbound over the Ashley River in Charleston County, the bridge over Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant and Highway 52 over the Cooper River in Berkeley County.
"Many of these bridges were 60 or 70, sometimes 80 years old. Some of them are older, now some of them over 90," said McMaster. "Too many have been closed, while others are in such a state of disrepair that the required restrictions render them useless for commercial trucking, school buses, or fire trucks needed to serve our state’s increasing population," McMaster said.
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Source: ABC News 4
