Roads are being repaired, all right. Just not the right ones.
Perhaps owing to The Nerve’s frequent coverage of the debate over road funding, we receive a lot of emails about specific roads and intersections. Mainly these are citizens asking why the Department of Transportation has ignored one deplorably time-worn road but repaved a nearby road in better condition, or why a roundabout was constructed for no evident reason, or why a highway was expanded when hardly anyone travels on it. Sometimes, of course, there may be good answers to these and similar questions. But we’re pretty sure that in some cases there is no answer but bureaucratic bungling and a total lack of accountability for top-level transportation policymakers.
Here are several emails we’ve received recently. We wonder if our readers are familiar with these roads, or if any would like to add their stories (and complaints) in the comments section.
Would someone explain why DOT will not repave Trenholm Road in Columbia? It has been an absolute mess for years. A couple of years ago I called DOT about it, and someone told me the road was scheduled for repair. I hope “repair” didn’t mean just covering potholes. The potholes are covered, but covered badly. I lived just off Trenholm, but I avoid it when I can.
Yet four or five years ago Devine Street, not far away, was completely repaved. And it didn’t even need it! No potholes on it then, none now.
And this:
I wonder why DOT saw it necessary to build a high-speed exit off Route 11 onto southbound U.S. 25 in northern Greenville County. I travel that interchange often enough to know there never is any traffic backup there.
The only explanation I can think of is that exclusive rural enclaves have been built along 11 west of 25. A half mile section of 25 also was repaved where the exit road from one of these enclaves intersects. Just a half mile or so. The rest of 25 up to the North Carolina border remains pockmarked. As soon as you cross over into North Carolina you notice the improvement.
Also, this:
Highway 1 is an embarrassment. It looks like something out of a dystopian novel. BY CONTRAST, I travel to Charleston once a month, and I can’t find so much as a pothole. Although I’ve run into a lot of widening projects!
Your comments welcome.