SCDOT updates multiple Beaufort County road contracts, rehabilitation work underway

Tracy Bruton Rockey, SCDOT representative, told the Beaufort County Transportation Committee on March 2025 that contractors have completed major portions of several resurfacing and repair contracts and that some remaining work is scheduled this spring and summer.

The update covered Lands' End Road work, which SCDOT presented as split between Blythe and APAC; Blythe has finished its scope and APAC will finish surface work after premilling and leveling next week. "The overall completion of this work is supposed to be September thirtieth of this year," Rockey said. She said APAC had brought in a new operations manager and planned two to three days of premilling followed by surfacing the following week.

Rockey also reported that work on Island Causeway and a multi-county pavement-marking contract by PEAK is nearly complete. "PEAK has been working, doing it at night because of the heavy traffic," she said, adding the contractor expected to finish overnight work by 2:00 a.m. the following morning.

On Charleston Highway she said APAC paused work for about three weeks to focus crews on the Lands' End contract so the completed sections will tie together smoothly when finished.

Rockey described a Beaufort–Jasper rehabilitation package that includes nine roads total: five in Jasper County and four affecting Beaufort County, representing roughly 18.25 miles overall and about 7.57 miles in Beaufort. She said a preconstruction meeting and notice to proceed were issued Jan. 28 and contractors have started work on roads such as Detro Road. Due to safety concerns near a school, SCDOT arranged "Blue Lakes" (flagging/escort) support during about two weeks of active operations to protect crews.

Other items included a traffic-signal upgrade contract anticipated to start in May that will add pedestrian controls at several signals, and a hydroseeding task to finish the APAC portion of one causeway segment.

Committee members pressed for details about lane closures on U.S. 278 and how localized widening would be handled. Rockey said some closures are restricted because of heavy congestion on the corridor and that specific widening and patching plans vary by segment: full-depth 8-inch patches, limited two-foot widenings in some locations, and spot leveling in others.

Rockey provided a contract summary for the meeting and said she would include a back-end summary at the next meeting showing contract amounts, percent complete and funding sources (state, CTC or federal). In response to a committee question about the total program value, she said, "The overall for that contract is about $18,000,000 but for the Beaufort County, it's a little bit less than that."

The committee had no formal vote on these items; staff said they would return with a more detailed, per-contract summary at a future meeting.

Ending: Committee members said they would review the detailed contract summary when it is added to the packet; SCDOT staff committed to supply the itemized contract totals, percent complete, and funding type for each contract at the next meeting.