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Major Rock Hill road project a year behind schedule

By Greg Suskin, wsoctv.com
By Greg Suskin, wsoctv.com

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Hardy Butler took down the American flag from his flagpole last year because dust from nearby road construction turned it brown.

"I won't fly it anymore if it won't stay clean," Butler said.

Butler lives off McConnells Highway in Rock Hill, where a major road project is taking much longer than expected.

The $14.8 million, 2-mile road widening project on McConnells Highway stretches from Heckle Boulevard to Falls Road.

It will create a center turn lane on much of the road.

The long stream of construction barrels was supposed to disappear from McConnells Highway last April.

Instead, it will be next April.

Butler said it would've been nice to know that.

"They usually let people know if something's gonna be delayed over a month or two, but a year?" Butler said.

South Carolina Department of Transportation officials said the long delay is because unexpected utility and sewer lines were discovered.

They either weren't ever mapped out or were too old to have good records showing where they were.

"You don't know what's under the ground until you cut it open," said Patrick Hamilton, who heads the Pennies for Progress program, which oversees all the projects paid for by the 1-cent sales tax.

However, there's a bigger issue countywide that could impact local projects everywhere.

So many new projects are slated, there aren't enough contractors to do the work.

"It's definitely very, very tough,” Hamilton said. “That's something that us, the DOT and even the private sector is having to deal with.”

More big projects on the horizon could face delays because of contractors already busy with other work.

Next week, construction at Highway 321 at Barrett Road is expected to begin.

In January, several major projects will be up for bid, including widening Highway 160 west from Zoar Road to the state line and resurfacing 13 roads across the county at a $6 million price tag. Cherry Road is also due for resurfacing in the Winthrop area, at a cost of roughly $5 million.

Hamilton said with so much work available, contractors can increase their bid prices and will sometimes put in an unusually high bid for a project.

If they don't get it, there's plenty more work to do already.

That makes it hard for local counties, including York County, to budget for all the planned roadwork.

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