The leader of South Carolina's transportation agency has been to so many groundbreaking ceremonies for highway projects that he has the whole routine down.
Signs were printed, fancy shovels were readied and, since it was the middle of August, an air-conditioned spot — the welcome center in Hardeeville — was booked for the celebration of an $825 million project on Interstate 95 to untangle another traffic mess in one of the fastest growing states in the U.S.
Justin Powell has been around for a half-dozen of these projects in his nearly seven years at the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT). He oversees an agency whose reputation and results have turned around in the past eight years. Over that time, an influx of money raised South Carolina's gas tax 12 cents under his predecessor Christy Hall, pushing it up to 28 cents a gallon.
A decade ago, SCDOT was spending $2.7 billion on roads; today, the agency is about to pass $7 billion in highway construction.
It is a far cry from 11 years ago when the SCDOT secretary before Hall — who continually told lawmakers his job was to "manage the decline of the state highway system" — resigned after being pulled over for driving under the influence on a weekday morning, according to the Associated Press. He was the third transportation department director in two years.
"Thanks to the trust from the [state] General Assembly in 2017, we've delivered what we were asked to do," Powell told the AP during a recent interview in his office.
Orange Construction Barrels Everywhere in S.C.
The Aug. 14 ceremony in Hardeeville, at the southern tip of the state, marked the start of a 10-mi. project to widen I-95 to three lanes in each direction and replace the bridges over the Savannah River at the Georgia state line. The site has long been a bottleneck that often stalls traffic on one of the nation's busiest highways.
Elsewhere in the Palmetto State, crews are working on a $2 billion project to iron out the place where Interstates 20, 26 and 126 all meet in the capital city of Columbia.
In addition, construction is under way on an effort that will eventually expand two travel lanes to three in each direction along 70 mi. of I-26 from Charleston to Columbia. Part of that includes a new, multi-million upgrade of the I-26/I-95 interchange, southeast of Orangeburg.
The AP noted that soon, the state plans to reconstruct the I-526 half loop around Charleston, which could cost up to $7 billion.
And it is not just interstate work that is being planned across South Carolina.
A decade ago, nearly half the pavement on the 41,000 mi. of the state's roads was in poor shape. Since then, more than a quarter of South Carolina's roadways have been repaved.
In addition, thousands of bridges built in the 1950s and 1960s are now reaching the age when they need to be replaced.
As Powell's agency finishes digging out of the hole of decades of neglect, he is well aware South Carolina has added 1.5 million people over the past 25 years. Many complaints he hears have shifted from rough roads and potholes to traffic congestion.
"This is not little ol' South Carolina anymore," he said. "The interstate system was built back when South Carolina had about 2.5 million people. We've got this dual challenge of maintaining what we have and dealing with significant growth pressure."
Accountability Instead of Horse-Trading
In the past, SCDOT had long been dogged by corruption and horse trading where favored legislators got road projects that were funneled to their friends. Case in point: In 1935, the state's governor sent a militia armed with machine guns to the highway commission after the board refused to seat his appointees, according to the AP.
Today, Powell and his agency have received unprecedented support from lawmakers who changed the agency's structure.
Despite that, the SCDOT still has its critics. The conservative Freedom Caucus asserts the agency is not spending money wisely enough and wants to use artificial intelligence to overcome what it terms burdensome regulations without a lot of details.
The group also wants to turn roadbuilding and improvements over to the counties. South Carolina is only the 40th biggest U.S. state in terms of area but has the fourth largest state-maintained road network. SCDOT controls three times as many miles of roads as Florida.
Powell gets the idea, but said unwinding nearly a century of state control would be difficult. Counties would need money, and many would also require an influx of new machinery and knowledge.
"It took us 90 years to get here," he said. "It would probably take us that long to find our way out."
