South Carolina's transportation infrastructure crisis is likely to get worse unless the General Assembly takes steps in the coming session to pump more money into ailing system.

According to Department of Transportation officials, the state needs an additional $1.8 billion each year for a couple of decades to meet needs. DOT needs $1.2 billion for new roads and bridges and $560 million each year to maintain existing roads.

According to Michael Covington, DOT spokesman, state secondary roads are on a 160-year resurfacing cycle, instead of a more appropriate 15-year cycle. Covington says the state needs an additional $140 million a year to achieve the 15-year cycle.

Without additional revenue, the problems will persist.

Beaufort County is familiar with DOT revenue problems. The S.C. 170 widening project is nearly complete only because voters agreed five years ago to institute a local-option sales tax for a 25 percent match to DOT funds. Without the local initiative, S.C. 170 would still be a two-land road, vying for the honor of the state's most dangerous road.

In the last two general elections, Beaufort County voters have rejected referenda, which would have used local-option taxes to finance additional road improvements, among other infrastructure.

DOT has proposed a $15 per axle fee, which translates into $30 per car per year, to help alleviate the crisis. The proposal is one of many that probably will not see the light of day in the General Assembly.

Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head, wants to charge the 45 oil companies operating in South Carolina a 5 percent annual tax. According to his calculations, the tax would generate $268 million. He would use half of that for road maintenance. His proposal leaves DOT with a $426 million maintenance shortfall.

Other proposal would increase the state's 16-cents a gallon gasoline tax. According to the S.C. Chamber of Commerce an 8-cent per gallon increase on gasoline and a 5-cent per gallon tax on diesel fuel would generate an additional $206 million.

In its 2004 agenda, the chamber also advocated increases in several other areas of vehicle operation:

An additional $11 for auto registration to raise $15.8 million;

An increase in the driver's license fee by $12.50, to raise $15.18 million;

A rental care fee of $6 per day with $5 going to the highway fund and $1 going to the C-fund that goes to counties. This would raise $17 million.

South Carolina has a tremendous need to improve and expand roads its 42,000 miles of state and secondary roads, the fourth largest in the nation. The state's 16 cent gas tax is the nation's the fifth lowest, and a large portion of the tax goes to the state general fund to help finance other items of government.

DOT executives project the rate of population growth, coupled with continued tourism development, will result in a $36 billion revenue shortfall to build and maintain roads over the next two decades.

In the meantime, South Carolina expects an additional million people to populate the state. Half of those probably will live in the state's eight counties in coastal plain. The state has major problems ahead and the General Assembly must address the issue with some form of revenue generation in 2005.