Major repaving in South Carolina could take possibly more than two years.

That’s what The Nerve found in SC Department of Transportation records.

The Nerve is published by the public watchdog SC Policy Council.

As of Aug. 26, of 605 road projects listed, 191 – nearly a 3rd – had no estimated completion dates. 414 projects with estimated completion dates were more than 600 miles, about 12% of the total miles.

Lexington County had 14, Richland County 13 and Newberry County 18.

DOT continues to sit on hundreds of millions of dollars generated under the gastax-hike law that took effect July 1, 2017.

As of Aug. 31, the cash balance in a special fund created with the law was $869.7 million, or 42.4% of the $2.05 billion in revenues collected since 2017, according to DOT and state comptroller general records.

Through August, the state had collected nearly $80 million more than the total estimated cost of all project commitments identified by DOT, agency records show.

In passing the gas-tax-hike law, lawmakers promised that the money would be used to fix the state’s deteriorating roads and bridges. The law raised the state gasoline tax 12 cents a gallon over 5 years – a 75% jump from the base 16 cents – and increased other vehicle taxes and fees.

DOT has said that 80% of the state’s 42,000 miles of roads need to be repaved or rebuilt, and identified 465 out of 750 structurally-deficient bridges to replace.

As of Aug. 31, DOT had identified 4,989 miles of state paving projects to be paid for with gas-tax-hike revenues.

That is less than 15% of the overall number of miles of roads that DOT says need to be resurfaced or reconstructed.

The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state’s roads a “D” grade in its annual infrastructure report card.

It also revealed that since 2016, DOT has awarded 56 bridge contracts to a company with ties to Sen. Hugh Leatherman, one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers.

The Nerve this year repeatedly has found in monthly DOT reports that the total value of finished repaving or reconstruction projects in Lexington County and the state’s other 45 counties has been less than 50% of the estimated cost of all such projects funded with gas-tax-hike revenues.

In its latest review, The Nerve submitted a state Freedom of Information Act request to DOT last month for actual or estimated start and end dates for every road project identified in its June report.

DOT didn’t provide any internal records but instead directed The Nerve to an obscure link on its website listing road projects that began or were scheduled to begin starting in 2016 to 2021.

The average estimated construction time is about 116 weeks, or 2.2 years.

Rick Brundrett is news editor of The Nerve (www. thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@ thenerve.org.

We welcome your letters

In letters to the editor, please include your name, address, and telephone number for verification. Your telephone number and address will not be published. Our deadline for letters is 2 p.m. Friday.Send them to JerryBellune@yahoo.com