Minor construction continues on the project almost two years after the October 2003 scheduled completion date. And new bridges over the Broad and Chechessee rivers contain thousands of hairline cracks that might require an expensive overlay to cover the driving surface.
Rocque Kneece, the Transportation Department's eastern program development director, said two big-ticket items are driving costs higher on the S.C. 170 project: land acquisition and the cracks in the bridges.
At a meeting today, the department will ask the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank for a $10 million loan to cover the shortfall, said Debra Rountree, the bank's director.
The Infrastructure Bank provided $62 million for the project, while a temporary 1 percent sales tax in Beaufort County raised $30 million. The Infrastructure Bank is funded through a portion of the state gasoline tax and a portion of truck registration fees.
The S.C. 170 shortfall is only one of several shortfalls around the state The $60 million demolition of the old Cooper River bridges connecting Charleston to Mount Pleasant is included in the loan request, along with projects in Horry and Lexington counties.
Kneece said he did not know how much the department was requesting for all of the projects.
The two new bridges on S.C. 170 have thousands of hairline cracks in the driving surface. Engineers say they are structurally sound, but the concrete roadways are cracking at a rate much faster than is to be expected.
After the cracks were noticed, the department ordered a sealant put in the major bridge cracks. For months, department officials have said they anticipated placing an overlay on the driving surface so it is harder for water to get in the cracks. But Kneece said Thursday that the department still was trying to decide whether to apply a sealant or overlay to the bridges.
An overlay could cost between $5 million and $10 million, but a sealant would be less expensive because it's thinner, he said.
The other reason costs are running higher than expected for the project is expensive land acquisition. Part of a property on the northwest side of the highway in Jasper County was condemned for the highway to be widened, but the owner sued and won a settlement of more than $2 million. The department was expecting it to cost about $300,000.
While the department is appealing that ruling, three or four more condemnation lawsuits are outstanding, Kneece said.
The company hired to do the $105 million widening project, Balfour Beatty Construction, had given the department a list of items it wanted extra compensation for, Kneece said. Those included higher-than-expected condemnation costs and having brought in an extra work crew to accelerate a portion of the bridge work that had fallen behind schedule.
Four lanes of traffic have been open in the construction zone since November 2004, well past the contract's deadline of October 2003. The company was assessed an $8,000-per-day penalty between those times, allowing the department to save a total of about $3 million. That money will be put toward other items that need to be addressed on the project, such as the bridges, Kneece said.