With more than a thousand bridges on South Carolina’s interstates and major highways “rapidly approaching” a need for an overhaul, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is asking legislators for a $1 billion commitment to keep the state’s economic lifelines flowing.
Many bridges on the state highway system, the Charleston Post and Courier reports, are more than 60 years old, built using designs not intended to handle the quantity and hefty loads of today’s tractor-trailers, according to the DOT. The agency has identified 1,125 such bridges on the state’s main traffic arteries in “fair” or “poor” condition that could become a real problem if not repaired in the next several years.
“Now is the time to start looking at those structures and address them before we have a major issue,” DOT Secretary Christy Hall recently told a Senate panel.
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Source: Charleston Post and Courier
About the Author
Frank RaczonFrank Raczon
Frank Raczon has covered and influenced the equipment industry for 35 years, including 15 years as senior editor of Construction Equipment, and marketing, advertising, and public relations work with the industry's top manufacturers. In addition to authoring "Caterpillar: Modern Earthmoving Marvels" (Motorbooks, 2015), he has won numerous awards in his career, highlighted by nods from the Construction Writers Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the Business Marketing Association, and BtoB magazine. Raczon has also won a number of awards from publishing peer groups such as ASBPE and TABPI.