Here’s where I-77 ranks on the SCDOT work list, and what you can do about it.
The stretch of I-77 from Fort Mill to southern Chester County ranks No. 3 on a proposed South Carolina Department of Transportation list of construction needs. Anyone who wants it higher or lower has a few weeks to say so.
Median and shoulder improvements on interstate corridors have an estimated $700,000 coming this year for engineering work. This fiscal year and next, $32.5 million comes for construction. The work will be added to the state’s transportation improvement plan.
The public has until March 21 to submit comments on the recommendation.
A 30-mile stretch of I-77 is the third of seven projects spanning 13 counties. It’s the only stretch of I-77 on the list. Various parts of I-26 rank first, second and fourth. Those projects involve Dorchester, Berkeley, Charleston, Orangeburg, Lexington and Richland counties.
The I-77 span runs from the North Carolina line to exit 60 in Chester County. The notice comes less than a week after top state transportation officials visited Rock Hill to talk roads with the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study policy committee.
Christy Hall, state secretary of transportation, told the group there’s a major focus out of Columbia on maintaining existing roads and interstates rather than building new ones, as it relates to new money coming from the gas tax increase approved in 2017.
“It’s very heavily focused on maintenance of the existing system — safety projects, bridge projects, paving projects, some interstate projects that we probably should have done 10 years ago,” Hall told the group.
Hall and other state officials at the meeting also spoke on the critical nature of interstates not only to move commuters, but also freight trucks that keep the economy moving.
To comment on the state plan, visit the link at scdot.org.
