From staff reports

The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) has announced plans for an additional $562 million in road pavement and resurfacing projects for the coming fiscal year 2020-2021, and as a result, there are a few miles of roads to be paved or resurfaced in Northern Beaufort County.

SCDOT is completing Year 3 of its 10-Year Plan on or ahead of schedule in all categories of rebuilding the state's roads.

The $562 million of new paving includes projects in all of the state's 46 counties and is in addition to the $1.3 billion of road, bridge and safety project work SCDOT is currently implementing. Paving the state's roads is the largest of the 10-Year Plan's four programs, which include rural road safety, replacing or repairing bridges, and Interstate widening. As a part of the 2020-2021 paving plan SCDOT plans to resurface an additional 661 miles of primary roads, farm-to-market roads, and neighborhood streets.

Included on the list are several roads in northern Beaufort County:

A .19-mile stretch of Johnny Morrall Circle in Port Royal;

A .11-mile stretch of Duke Street in downtown Beaufort;

A .43-mile stretch of Wilson Drive in the Pigeon Point area of Beaufort;

A 2.01-mile stretch of Sea Island Parkway (from the 0.90 mile mark to the 2.91 mile mark) on Lady’s Island;

Two stretches of Laurel Bay Road, a 1.26-mile stretch (from mile mark 0 to 1.26) and a .47-mile stretch (from mile mark 2.93 to mile mark 3.40);

A 2.56-mile stretch of Castle Hall and Frampton roads in Yemassee, part of Hwy. U.S. 17-Alt..

SCDOT has prioritized the paving projects in the same manner it ranks all of its projects, based on safety and crash data, the condition and age of roads, and traffic information.

SCDOT also is adding an interactive GIS mapping capability to make it easier for the public to view the just-approved paving projects of interest to them. The new feature will soon be added to the "Public Comment" portion of the "Programs and Projects" section of the scdot.org website.

A link that explains how SCDOT determines which projects are funded through an analytical process can be found at https://www.scdot.org/inside/planning-project-prioritization.aspr