$38M coming from state for Greenwood’s Highway 246 expansion
Greenwood County is getting $38 million from the state to fund the expansion of S.C. Highway 246 South, according to a news release.
On Thursday, members of the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank voted unanimously to award the $38 million grant for the county’s widening project. The planned widening is part of the 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax, which designated $12 million of CPST funds for the estimated $50 million expansion.
These state funds were always an essential part of getting this project done, said county Public Works Director Rob Russian. To date, the county has received and designated about $6 million for pre-construction costs, including design.
“Having this state funding come through from the state infrastructure bank was always essential to the project,” Russian said. “It’s a tremendous relief getting this money. This has been a project we’ve been working on since I started in this position.”
The project involves widening four miles of Highway 246 South from Highway 221 in Coronaca to Highway 702. This stretch of highway includes industries such as Teijin, Ascend Performance Materials, Lonza, Fujifilm and Velux. Russian said the current two-lane highway serves as bare minimum road infrastructure for these existing industries. If Greenwood wants to attract more business to this stretch of highway, he said expanding it is key.
“I can’t thank the voters of Greenwood County enough for the role they played in today’s announcement,” Josh Skinner, CPST coordinator said. “As a result of their foresight we were able to leverage the $12 million allotment from the CPST funds into $50 million to accomplish this important project.”
Skinner said these state dollars were a surprise. He expected it would be nearly two years before Greenwood could secure this grant funding. The county had applied for these funds in 2020, but state officials tabled the request until the county knew more about how it would fund the project.
Since then, Skinner said Greenwood got help from the Upper Savannah Council of Governments, which put the Highway 246 project on its list of transportation priorities. Getting DOT to agree to manage the project likely helped the grant applications’ prospects too, Skinner said.
“It all came together and yesterday the evaluation committee met and said we met all the criteria,” he said.
County Council Chairperson Chuck Moates praised Russian, Skinner and County Engineer Rett Templeton for their work securing these funds. The county has signed an agreement with the state transportation department to manage the project, and design is expected to be underway by the end of the year. Construction could begin in 2025, with a 2027 completion date.
The state infrastructure bank’s grants are competitive, and Greenwood was up against projects such as Interstate work in York County and projects in Charleston that also got funded. Russian said the state infrastructure bank has begun to shift its thinking in awarding funds to help promote development throughout the state.
“It’s a win for rural counties all over the state, to start getting these infrastructure funds,” he said.
The work’s not done yet, Skinner said. There’s no certainty construction and material costs won’t rise by the time the Highway 246 project gets bid, so county officials will continue working to secure additional funds.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on: Sep 9, 2022
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com