Residents blame dump trucks for severe damage to York County road

FORT MILL, S.C. — Britt Helms has lived off Holbrook Road in Fort Mill since 1968.

"It's never been as bad as it is right now," Helms said.

The road has more than just your average potholes, there are deep ruts where the asphalt has crumbled away.  Some of the damage extends almost to the double yellow line in the middle of the road, which forces vehicles to cross into oncoming traffic to avoid it.

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On Tuesday, Channel 9 watched as drivers swerved repeatedly to get around at least three gaping holes on Holbrook Road.

"The road wasn't built for this kind of traffic," Helms said.

The kind of traffic he's talking about is large dump trucks that carry fill dirt from a school construction site up the road to private farmland further down Holbrook.

Another neighbor, Patrick White, said it's so bad he's reached out to the state and county council members for help.

"If I went to their house and took a pick ax and literally started tearing the road up in front of their homes I would probably be arrested within the hour.  However, we've got a contractor tearing our road up and nobody's addressing that," White said.

Allen Barfield owns the grading company that's sending dump trucks up and down the road.  He told Channel 9 the road has been bad for years and his company is not to blame for its problems.

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"We aren't the only ones on that road.  There are new homes being built out there.  All kinds of trucks use that road too, not just us," Barfield said.

Barfield also told Channel 9 that the transport police weighed his vehicles and they were all legal weight, and well below the required limits.

The transport police backed that up, telling Channel 9 that officers spent two weeks in Fort Mill responding to complaints and weighing trucks that use the road. No citations were given.

Department of Transportation engineers said the problem is the road wasn't designed for heavy traffic to begin with.

Most similar roads were rural roads that were once gravel and later covered with asphalt.

Fort Mill's rapid growth has led to more traffic and heavy truck traffic on construction projects.

Officials are trying to determine when to begin a long-term fix for Holbrook road.

Patrick Hamilton, director of York County's Pennies for Progress, said the road is slated to be resurfaced in 2020.  However, because of the extensive damage, officials are hoping to fast track the project to this year.

The problem is, with ongoing construction there, they don't want to resurface a road that will only suffer immediate damage again.

York County is working with DOT engineers on a solution to the safety problem there.

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Meantime, on Tuesday afternoon, DOT work crews filled in the deep holes with stone and plan to patch them with new asphalt on Wednesday.

The patches are not a permanent fix but will at least level the road out and allow drivers to use it without crossing the double yellow or stopping in the road before passing the problem areas.

DOT engineers said often when a construction project is finished, contractors that caused much of the damage will pay for road repairs. However, that's not required by law.

The DOT is not an enforcement agency and if the trucks are legally using the road, they can't be forced to pay for the damage.

Cox Media Group