The Nerve

By RICK BRUNDRETT South Carolina will need almost $43 billion more by 2040 to fix its bad roads and handle increased traffic with projected growth, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which gave the state’s roads a “D” grade in its annual infrastructure report card. Meanwhile, the S.C. Department of Transportation continues to […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Motorists likely will feel plenty of bumps this Memorial Day weekend as they drive over South Carolina’s seemingly endless pothole-riddled roads. Since the state gas-tax-hike law took effect nearly four years ago, The Nerve has repeatedly pointed out the S.C. Department of Transportation’s relatively slow pace of completing paving projects while sitting […]

  By RICK BRUNDRETT A proposal by a longtime S.C. senator would siphon millions from a main source of gas-tax-hike revenues that lawmakers promised would go toward fixing the state’s crumbling roads and bridges, and instead earmark that money for widening interstates. It also could be a way around what the state transportation chief previously […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT In the first year of a controversial law hiking the state’s gasoline tax and other fees, the S.C. Department of Transportation spent no proceeds in 20 of South Carolina’s 46 counties, newly released records show. Overall, only about $7 million, or 2.2 percent, of $312.6 million in total revenues collected from July […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT At last week’s S.C. Department of Transportation Commission meeting, agency head Christy Hall bragged about the “record level of road work underway currently in South Carolina.” “We have delivered results for our taxpayers and for our citizens of this state,” Hall proudly told commissioners Thursday. But as of the end of the […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT When S.C. lawmakers passed the gas-tax-hike bill last year, they promised every penny would go toward fixing deteriorating state roads and bridges. Critics, though, said then that filling potholes that riddle South Carolina’s roadways was never the real priority. Instead, they contended, the law as written allows millions of dollars generated primarily […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Nearly nine months after the state law took effect hiking the gasoline tax and other taxes and fees – purportedly to fix South Carolina’s crumbling roads – the authorized money has yet to be spent, though more than $131 million has been collected. At least that’s what online records from Comptroller General […]