Colleton segment added to U.S. 17 work
WALTERBORO — The U.S. Highway 17 widening project is inching its way into Colleton County.
The S.C. Department of Transportation board last week approved widening a 1.7-mile stretch of the highway in Colleton County, starting from the Combahee River bridge to Lightsey Plantation Drive.
The project will connect a six-mile widening project in Beaufort County to a short section of the road that already has four lanes.
Between 1997 and 2006, there were at least 33 fatalities on the 22-mile stretch of U.S. 17 between Gardens Corner in Beaufort County and Jacksonboro in Colleton County. Efforts to widen that stretch began in earnest after a March 2004 Navy bus crash near Gardens Corner that killed three sailors.
State and local leaders have been battling for several years to improve the entire stretch, coming close in 2006, only to come up short on money.
The state finally settled on $80 million for widening the Beaufort County portion of the road because that is where most of the wrecks occurred.
DOT officials said it became economically feasible to use federally matched funds for the 1.7-mile stretch now rather than later.
The DOT Commission approved using up to $25 million for the project. The department is in negotiations with Phillips and Jordan Inc., the company doing the Beaufort construction, about extending the construction into Colleton.
Danny Shealy, the department's director of construction, said the maximum $25 million amount takes into account that nearly a mile of the road is a causeway that passes over marsh. The project will require extra resources to get the materials into place, he said.
DOT officials said that by doing the project now they will avoid at least $2 million in escalating costs. They still don't know when the remaining 14 miles of road will be widened.
But officials said extending the contract will cut down on the disruption in traffic and allow the department to take advantage of wetlands permits already in place.
Local leaders said all along that doing the entire project at once would save money and time. State legislators and county council members approached the State Infrastructure Bank for money in 2006 to complete the entire $223 million project at once, but the request was denied.
Colleton County Council- man Gene Whetsell said the project is still well short of what the county wanted, but it's a step forward.
"That'll be a help," he said. "It gets it across the causeway and to the first four-lane section."
Reach Andy Paras at 745-5891 or aparas@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
This article has 3 comment(s)
Posted by icbmman on February 27, 2008 at 8:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
And the incompetance of state bureaucracy and its leaders continues. It is sickening, repulsive, and downright CRIMINAL that these retards in the infrastructure bank and DOT continue to drag their fat a$$es in widening this road. Good night, Greenville has a new, 6-lane beltway loop that is hardly ever used, and the state is LOSING money on it, yet those geniuses never bothered to consider investing money into a real project that would save lives!!!
Thankfully, US 17 is getting widened, but it's through the piece-meal, half-a$$ process that this state seems to love so well. The article even says itself that if the entire widening had been done all at once, the state and counties would save money. Thanks to the Infrastructure Bank, the eventual cost of the project will exceed what was needed, with probably lower quality construction.
Oh, and let's not forget the numskulls of the CCL who opposed and interfered with this project for years. The blood of the 33 fatalities on this road can be indirectly traced to this halfwitted organization. All in the name of preservation of natural beauty. Arrggh! I need a drink...
Posted by grannyofsix on February 27, 2008 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Widen the roads are great. But what about the roads we already have that have huge pot holes. all they do is patch them then the big trucks come through and bingo the hole is back. colleton county has the worst roads i have seem by far. ym car is in need of tire reline ment because of these holes and when you try to aviod the hole the people behind you think your drunk all the taxs we pay you wopuld think the hot shots would skip one vaction in the bahammas and use the money for our roads
Posted by icbmman on February 27, 2008 at 2:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
More people need to be outraged by this. This deliberate procrastination is the kind of behavior that I absolutely despise with many of the government bureaucracies in SC. Granny, they do indeed need to repair roads that you have mentioned. Infrastructure should be one of the government's PRIMARY responsibilities...yet we're significantly debating eviction of people from a public housing project - a resemblance to socialism!