COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – Acting South Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Christy Hall told the SCDOT Commission Thursday it’ll be at least Thanksgiving before she can give them a cost estimate for the road and bridge damage caused by the recent flooding.
“We are still very much underway with assessments. We still have water on roads in Georgetown County. We can’t even get in to see what type of damage we have,” she told commissioners in their regular meeting.
She also updated them on the progress the SCDOT is making. On October 5th, there were 541 roads and bridges closed in the state. That number is now down to 251, with crews continuing to work to open more roads.
Hall said federal money should pay for most of the repairs that are needed. “Federal Highway Emergency Relief dollars are going to be able to support repairing the roads and bridges in the federal aid system. Not 100 percent, everything, but close enough for discussion purposes. Typically it’s going to be 100 percent reimbursement for temporary repairs for the first 180 days. After the 180 days, which is six months, it goes to 80-20,” she said, meaning the federal government will pay for 80 percent of the cost but the state will have to come up with the other 20 percent. Repairs on roads that are not part of the federal aid system will be paid for with money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she told commissioners.
Even before the flooding, the DOT had estimated it would need an additional $1.5 billion a year to bring state roads and bridges up to “good” condition, so federal aid will be critical to not disrupting the state’s road improvement plans.
SCDOT Commission Chairman Jim Rozier says he hopes the flooding won’t disrupt the DOT’s budget.
“Well, we hope it doesn’t,” he said after the meeting. “We hope it doesn’t set us back at all, because if it does, then we’ve got to catch up more again. We can’t afford to go backwards. So we’re going to work with our General Assembly, going to work with our delegation in Washington and with our president and FEMA and see if we can’t work it out with dollars to take care of the emergency situation without digging into our budgeted items.”
