Charleston County outlines $1 billion in roads work, warns borrowing may be needed as projects ramp up

Eric Adams, Charleston County Public Works Director, briefed County Council at a public meeting on the roads portion of the county's transportation sales tax, saying the program has funded more than $1 billion in projects and that the county may need to borrow to match construction schedules with available revenue.

Adams said the program has delivered 55 miles of sidewalk, 16 miles of multi-use path, 12 miles of bike lane, 46 miles of drainage pipe and about 492,000 tons of asphalt, and that the county has treated just under 880 miles of roadway through its pavement-management program. "If we were to break that down by truck or load of asphalt, that would be about 31,000 trucks," Adams said, illustrating program scale.

The transportation sales tax program is made up of several funding streams, Adams said, including an annual allocation program for bike-and-pedestrian projects, intersection improvements, rural roads and local paving; larger bonded projects that began under an earlier (2004) program; and the 2016 feature projects that require more complex permitting and design. Adams estimated the program represents "over $1,000,000,000 of work" and walked council through category-by-category statistics and upcoming schedules.

Why it matters: Adams emphasized cash-flow management as projects shift from design and permitting into construction. He showed revenue and expenditure timelines, noting the county borrowed three times in the earlier program and has borrowed a total of about $261,000,000 for the…