Your Money, Your Roads: November

The Dorchester County One-Cent Sales Tax Transportation Authority had its regular meeting Nov. 14 at county council chambers and had the following updates to its projects around the county.

• Of the 482 dirt roads in the county as of 2004, when the one-cent referendum was passed, 386 roads have been paved.
• Phase I of Highway 78 is nearly complete. The last step is finishing the railroad crossing, which will depend on Norfolk Southern. Phase II and III are still in planning. Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments approved nearly $14 million of the $22 million project for Phase II during its Oct. 24 meeting.
• Sullivans Landing Road, a $1.5 million project, will be complete by mid December.
• Dorchester Road is still on schedule to be completed by November 2013.

• Berlin G. Myers Parkway remains on hold while issues with Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are sorted. Authority member J.D. Allston bemoaned the project's slow pace and said it was "the main reason why people voted for this referendum." Allston also asked if the raised median at the intersection of Highway 78 and Berlin G. Myers Parkways could have better marking, since the had hit the median, he said.

• Bacons Bridge Road has received grants from S.C. Department of Transportation for $9.6 million. The $23 million project is slated to begin early next year. In August, both the and to this road. 
• Old Fort Road is waiting on the Army Corps of Engineer permit. The $8 million project satisfied S.C. State Historic Preservation Office requirements with a sign for the 700-foot Eagle Creek watershed bridge, which traverses historic rice fields. 

• The intersection of Highway 78 and 27 has obtained right-of-ways and its permit.
• The intersection of Highway 78 and 22 is working on obtaining right-of-ways and has submitted for its permit. It has received $1 million from SCDOT's safety money.
• The intersection of Highway 78 and Deming Way has received an OK from SCDOT. However, the project has an issue with avoiding utilities. The project is expected to begin by the first of 2012. 
• The intersection of S.C. 61 and Summer Road has obtained its Army Corps of Engineers' permit.

Since 2004, when the authority has embarked on completing 22 projects countywide, the organization has obtained 64.5 percent of its funding from matching programs.