COLUMBIA — With greater than a thousand bridges on South Carolina’s interstates and main highways “quickly approaching” a necessity for an overhaul, the state Division of Transportation is asking legislators for a $1 billion dedication to maintain the state’s financial lifelines flowing.
Most of the bridges are greater than 60 years outdated, constructed utilizing designs not supposed to deal with the amount and hefty a great deal of at this time’s tractor-trailers, in keeping with the DOT. The company has recognized 1,125 such bridges on the state’s essential visitors arteries in “truthful” or “poor” situation that might grow to be an actual drawback if not repaired within the subsequent a number of years.
“Now could be the time to start out taking a look at these buildings and handle them earlier than we have now a significant problem,” DOT Secretary Christy Corridor just lately instructed a Senate panel.
“In different phrases: do not let the bridge fall down earlier than you attempt to handle it, or do not have an emergency closure after which work out you’ll want to work on it,” she stated. “Let’s work on it early.”
She is asking legislators for $200 million yearly for 5 years to do the repairs that can forestall rebuilds which might be far more pricey, each in {dollars} and time.
The Senate Finance Committee will think about the request the week of April 3 because it crafts its spending proposal for the fiscal yr beginning July 1. The model handed by the Home in March contains the $200 million allotment particularly for bridge work on main highways.
“Now we have to take a look at (interstates) as a significant lifeline for financial improvement and prosperity on this state,” Corridor stated. “What we’ve been profitable at avoiding to this point is having an interstate bridge closed for an extended time frame or detoured for lengthy time frame resulting from structural points or a significant drawback.”
There are notable exceptions to that, relying on what one considers a very long time.
In 2015 and once more in 2018, parts of Interstate 95 within the Pee Dee had been closed resulting from hurricane-related flooding. The closure of a 13-mile part in 2015 took visitors on an nearly 170-mile detour for greater than every week as crews repaired bridges that crossed streams and swamps.
Additionally in 2018, DOT closed the James B. Edwards Bridge on Interstate 526 over the Wando River at Mount Nice after inspectors found {that a} 1,000-foot cable within the concrete had snapped resulting from corrosion. The bridge reopened greater than every week sooner than predicted, however that excellent news got here after a number of weeks of visitors complications for the Charleston space.
Columbia has been coping with visitors detours since March 24, when DOT shut down the primary 5 miles of Interstate 77 northbound for 9 days. The southbound lanes of the identical part can be closed for 9 days in April. In all, 17 pothole-ridden bridges can be resurfaced. The entire shutdown of the sections permits the repairs to take days as an alternative of months, in keeping with DOT.
None of these closures are associated to the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s development and ageing points Corridor is trying to get forward of. (The I-526 bridge opened in 1991. That part of I-77 opened within the mid- to late-Eighties.)
The I-77 repairs had been a identified problem already within the development pipeline, stated DOT chief of workers Justin Powell.
However the interstate shutdown is an instance of what the $1 billion request seeks to keep away from.
Biennial inspections for each bridge in South Carolina ought to guarantee bridges are closed lengthy earlier than they deteriorate to the purpose of being in peril of collapsing and risking lives, he stated.
As of February, 632 bridges in South Carolina had load restrictions in place, and 51 had been closed. Mixed, that is lower than 10 % of all bridges on the state freeway system, in keeping with DOT.
However the opportunity of needing to shut any interstate bridge is one thing the company is trying to keep away from.
Which bridges could be repaired with every $200 million allotment, and in what order, will not be accredited till after the Legislature has dedicated the cash, Powell stated.
However the precedence can be on key commerce routes.
“There are routes within the state the place we by no means wish to get within the scenario the place we get a (load-restricting) posting or closure,” he stated, including, “If we had a closure on I-26, it might be a extremely unhealthy day.”
Examples of “sturdy candidates” for being on the high of the checklist embrace the I-95 bridge over Lake Marion between Williamsburg and Clarendon counties. The company pursued a federal grant for changing that bridge however did not get it, Powell stated.
“If that one goes down, it is a 70-mile detour,” he stated.
One other is the I-95 bridge over the Nice Pee Dee River, which is threatened throughout floods. DOT did get a federal planning grant for that one, he stated.
