SCDOT to Begin Working on First Projects Since the Roads Bill, Drivers React

KERSHAW COUNTY (WOLO)-Less than a month after the roads bill passed, the Department of Transportation is already listing the first roads they want to work on.

“DOT engineers go through an analytical process where they go through certain criteria for the roads. They do an objective ranking of the roads and basically, the new roads bill will enable us to just go further down that ranking list for the project so it’s no political but an analytical process,” said SCDOT Secretary Christy Hall.

The list features almost 200 miles of paving projects in the state with over 40 of those miles being in the agency’s Midlands region. Nearly 20 of those 200 miles can be found in Kershaw County and drivers in this area said they feel blessed to have their county be one of the first.

“It’s great. Most of the time you see taxes go up and things go up but you don’t see the results of them. So seeing them out, doing and measuring, it’s good for us to say ‘Okay, our tax dollars are at work. Are people are on it.’ So that makes us proud,” said Pastor Danny Hedgepath of Antioch Baptist, located on Antioch Road that appears on DOT’s list along with nine other roads in the county.

Secretary Hall said the department is doing preliminary work on the roads right now. She expects DOT to be finished with the first projects within a year. Hall said there is no need to worry if your area did make the list this time.

“If you don’t have a project on the list this year or the list that we just released just hold on, more projects are coming. Several projects are expected to be released before the end of the calendar year,” said Hall.