COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – An influx of federal money to repair hundreds of roads and bridges damaged by last month’s historic flooding will do little to improve South Carolina’s dilapidated highway system.
State Department of Transportation Secretary Christy Hall says the federal aid can be used only to make roads safely passable again, not to modernize them. She says that means if the roads were bad before the waters rose, they’ll still be bad after the repairs.
Hall says the exception is for a “handful” of bridges destroyed beyond repair. Their replacements can be built to current standards.
One month after the catastrophic storm, 54 roads and 29 bridges remain closed statewide. That’s down from an Oct. 5 peak of 541 closures.
How much the repairs will cost the state is not yet known.
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