Clarendon County Administrator David Epperson said Tuesday that three separate contractors should begin work in the next few weeks on nearly 450 county-maintained roads that were damaged during October’s historic flood.
“Some of those are driveable now, but they still have some problems,” said Epperson. “There are about 18 of them that are still impassable due to the water damage.”
Epperson told Clarendon County Council on Monday night – and during that body’s November meeting – that the road repairs would cost about $1.5 million. The state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency could cover about 75 percent of that cost.
“Thus far, we’ve focused on temporary road repairs, but now this will be permanent work,” Epperson said. “Even for the temporary repairs, there have been problems. We’ll temporarily repair a road and then we’ll have a big rain and water will be sitting on it.”
The state Department of Transportation reports eight state-maintained roads still closed due to October’s storm. Full bridge replacements are needed for a five-mile section of Gov. Richardson Road; various areas along U.S. 301 from Manning to Turbeville; and a 2.5-mile section of Plowden Mill Road. The repairs are not expected to start until this summer.
Repairs to areas of Gunter, Old River, Puddin’ Swamp and, Rainbow Lake roads have expected completion dates marked as “undetermined,” according to the state DOT’s website.
Major road, culvert and slope repairs to a half-mile section of St. Paul road in Summerton are expected by Jan. 31.
“The flooding really caused a mess,” Epperson said. “For county-maintained roads, we solicited three contractors and have entered into agreements with those. We have divided the projects by district.”
Epperson said roads would be prioritized based on how much they are traveled, along with other factors.
“We will prioritize roads that are in heavily populated neighborhoods, or that are on school bus routes,” he said. “We hope the contractors will be on the ground in the next two weeks so we can get these repairs completed.”
