Saturday, July 1 officially began the 10-year-long plan to rebuild S.C. roads, kicking off with the Roads Bill (a.k.a. gas + vehicle tax increases) going into effect. The ‘2 cents per year, for 6 years’ increase is the first gas tax increase since 1987.
Due to S.C. having the highest rural road fatality rate in the nation (30% of our highway deaths are happening in rural areas), the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) plans to use $50 million per year (of the extra money coming from gas + vehicle tax increases) to improve our most dangerous rural roads. Improvements include things like adding guard rails + shoulders where there previously were none.
The additional funding is allowing the state to create two new, ongoing programs to help with these projects: the Rural Road Safety Program + the Interstate Widening Program (working towards fixing 140 miles of S.C. highways).
Additional funding will also allow for expansion of already ongoing programs (i.e. the Bridge Replace Program that began in 2013). SCDOT set a goal of fixing 465 bridges in 10 years.
As funding builds up over the years, SCDOT hopes to add more roads + bridges to the improvement plan.
