Your Money, Your Roads: August

Dorchester County roads have construction crews and orange cones as the county transportation authority, SC DOT and other agencies work to improve them.

Here are the latest updates:

• Of the 250 miles of dirt roads in the county identified as of 2004, when the one-cent referendum was passed, about 200 miles of roads have been paved.
• Phase II and III of Highway 78 are underway. DOT and Federal Highway Administration are reviewing. After that review process, a public hearing is needed  before right of way acquisition can begin. Phase II has funding from Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governemnts, and Phase III has .
• Dorchester Road is slightly ahead of schedule despite some rain-caused erosion. It's scheduled completion date is November 2013.
• Berlin G. Myers Parkway project is starting to move and is acquiring right of ways. DOT is setting up model systems for hydrology to determine mitigation. Once the new model and mitigation is agreed upon by DOT, FEMA and the Corps of Engineers, permits can move forward.
• Bidding will begin on the Bacons Bridge Road project Aug. 21. The project is estimated at $27 million.
• For nearly a year, the $8-million Old Fort Road project has remained stalled as it waits on an Army Corps of Engineer permit. 
• The intersection of S.C. 61 and Summer Road has been bidded out to J.R. Wilson to the tune of $677,581.80.