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Ricky Smith, the owner of S&S Tire on Wade Hampton Boulevard, doesn't need any state measurements to tell him Greenville County's roads have grown worse in the past two years.

He sees evidence of it every day, he said, in the form of cracked rims, damaged tires and broken suspensions.

"The roads are rough around here," he said. "Does it cause a lot of problems with tires, wheels, suspensions? Yes, it does."

What Smith sees in his shop is reflected in state road condition reports, which show that fewer roads in the county are rated good and more are rated fair or poor than were two years ago.

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The same is true with roads statewide, according to state Department of Transportation records, the result of a lack of money to pay for needed resurfacing and road repairs.

In fact, according to the most recent annual accountability report by the agency, DOT's backlog of road and bridge repairs is more than $3 billion a year.

State engineers measure the pavement quality of all the state's roads on a regular basis, with some checked once a year and others checked every three years.

The engineers use a scale called the Pavement Quality Index, which scores every road from 0 to 5, with 5 being a perfect road. Roads scored below 3.0 need work, engineers say, and those low on the scale, near 1.2, are considered ruined. The scores are a combination of the quality of the ride of a road and the number of cracks and other flaws.

This year, the overall rating of the state's primary and secondary roads was 3.1, a drop from the 3.2 reported two years ago. Interstates have also deteriorated, according to DOT.

The percentage of interstate pavement rated as good or very good dropped from 61.8 percent in 2005 to 58.9 percent this year. The percentage of interstate pavement rated fair or poor, meanwhile, increased from 36.6 percent in 2005 to 38.1 percent in 2006.

In Greenville County, the deterioration is much more dramatic, according to DOT figures.

The percentage of U.S. routes rated good or very good in 2004 went from 12 percent in 2004 to 5.2 percent this year. On secondary roads, the slide was greater, going from 56 percent rated good or very good in 2004 to 21.9 percent this year.

"The routes definitely need improvement, and we're trying to work anywhere we can to get the funds to make those improvements," said DOT regional administrator Steven Gwinn. "It's a major problem as far as the condition of the roadways."

One of the difficulties is that some of the money normally available for local roads needs is tied up repaying bonds for work on the statewide accelerated road construction program.

According to the Greenville County Planning Commission, about $8.3 million a year is available for roads needs in the Greenville County area. With widening projects costing $3 million to $4 million a mile, officials say the $8 million doesn't go far.

"I see the routes I drive on my commute home and around my neighborhood, and the parts of town I travel in frequently deteriorate," said John Gardner, senior transportation planner for the Greenville County Planning Commission.