SCDOT commission unanimously selects Justin Powell as the agency’s first new leader in nearly a decade
By Seanna Adcox
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — Fixing thousands of outdated bridges to ensure people and products keep rolling across South Carolina will be a top priority for the state transportation agency’s next administration, according to the person tapped as its next leader.
Justin Powell, chief operating officer for the state Department of Transportation, is the chosen successor of Secretary Christy Hall, who will resign at the end of March after nearly a decade at the helm.
After the DOT’s governing board voted unanimously Thursday on his ascension — pending confirmation by the state Senate — Powell credited his boss and mentor with putting South Carolina’s crumbling highway system on the road to recovery. It was Hall’s multiple presentations to legislators that led to the 2017 law that increased gas taxes and provided the state’s first new revenue stream toward roadwork in 30 years.
Hall also oversaw the 10-year plan prioritizing how to spend state and federal tax dollars, given the vast needs that had accumulated over decades.
The result so far is nearly 8,000 miles of new paving, 335 bridges repaired or replaced, and 980 miles of rural roads made safer through projects such as widening shoulders and installing guardrails. On interstates, 101 miles of widening is underway, according to Hall’s presentation Thursday, Jan. 18, to the DOT board.
“Secretary Hall’s vision to put us on the 10-year plan has really recovered South Carolina’s transportation system,” Powell told reporters. “By every measure, it’s been a success.”
But both Hall and Powell recognized that the highway system’s 41,000 miles are far from fixed.
“For South Carolina to continue to prosper, we’re going to have to continue investing in our system and make sure it can handle the pressure and demands placed on it,” Powell said. “Transportation will increasingly determine our destiny as a state.”
At the top of the priority list going forward is bridge work, he said, pointing to the emergency closure of a bridge on Interstate 20 in Kershaw County several days before Christmas. Fortunately, he added, repairs for that bridge were already under contract when an inspection determined it had to be closed, allowing for a reopening within 50 hours.
Hall refers to the state’s bridge situation as a looming crisis. About 70 bridges across the state are closed, and one or two are being added to that list weekly, she said.
“It’s rapidly becoming a major problem,” she told her board at Thursday’s meeting.
The DOT is again seeking a $1 billion commitment — an additional $200 million yearly over five years — from the Legislature specifically for bridge work. Legislators rejected the request during budget negotiations last year. This year, Gov. Henry McMaster suggests instead putting $500 million of surplus sales tax toward bridges as a one-time infusion.
The timing of Hall’s retirement puts Powell at the helm in the middle of the state budget process, meaning he will be the one in the hotseat for legislators’ questions on how the DOT is spending taxpayer money. And every legislator has a list of complaints from their constituents when it comes to roadwork.
Asked about her advice to him, she told reporters, “Transparency and accountability are always key and much appreciated by members of the General Assembly, the public and certainly is something I’ve tried to live by.”
Her handoff to Powell has been in the works since she hired him five years ago from Horry County, where he was assistant county administrator overseeing a $500 million roadwork program funded by local sales taxes.
Hall said she recruited Powell after witnessing firsthand his abilities to lead while remaining calm in a crisis — at the time, hurricane response — an attribute that’s essential to the job.
Prior to Hall taking over in 2015, there had been three secretaries over two years.
“I think that speaks to the chaos that we’ve been trying to avoid with the succession planning,” she said. “I’ve been actively trying to ensure there’s somebody ready to take the helm when it’s time for me to depart.”
As for what she’ll do next, Hall said she’s not sure.
“Ten years is a long time to be an agency head, and it’s time to pass the baton to a new generation of leadership here at the DOT,” she said. “I want to take a little time to spend time with my family and we’ll see what the future holds. This is definitely not my last rodeo.”
Seanna Adcox is a South Carolina native with three decades of reporting experience. She joined States Newsroom in September 2023 after covering the S.C. Legislature and state politics for 18 years. Her previous employers include The Post and Courier and The Associated Press.
