Aiken seeks funding for road work

AIKEN - The significant growth in Aiken County in recent years is being felt on its roads, especially in its two largest cities, Aiken and North Augusta.

That means those municipalities and the county need to build new roads and improve existing thoroughfares, and officials say they cannot rely on state or federal funding to get the job done.

To battle traffic woes, the municipalities have reached a memorandum of understanding to identify possible funding sources for road projects.

The city of Aiken has identified at least 11 road projects it would like to accomplish by 2019 at a price tag of about $88 million.

"The bulk of this money should come from future 1-cent sales tax," said Roger LeDuc, the city manager.

According to the memorandum, each municipality would contribute at least 20 percent of its projected revenues from the third round of capital projects sales tax money to road projects. Third-round funding will be available from 2012 to 2019.

Although most of the projects on the city of Aiken's list are in the county, Mr. LeDuc said the city should provide at least 30 percent of its funds for these projects.

The municipalities also identified transportation-enhancement fees and impact fees as possible funding sources. Transportation-enhancement fees would be charged to each home that directly benefits from a road improvement, and impact fees would be levied on all new homes in the county.

"If we stand alone as a community with an impact fee and the county does not go along with an impact fee, we are the ones who are going to suffer," Mr. LeDuc said.

The county council recently agreed to award a contract to a consulting firm to undertake an impact fee study. Consultants will look at impact fees for other areas, such as recreation and water and sewer infrastructure.

Clay Killian, the county administrator, said future road projects are probably three to five years away.

"You can express your good faith desire to work with them, but (the memorandum) doesn't bind you to anything," Mr. Killian told the council members.

Aiken County and North Augusta have not targeted specific road projects.

Charles Martin, North Augusta's administrator, said the joint effort will give the municipalities a head start on identifying their worst traffic problems, but it will not solve them.

"We need to start addressing these issues now," he said. "The state of South Carolina is not going to come through with the money. The federal government is not going to come through with the money."

He said the goal of the initiative is to keep one group from bearing all of the costs.

"New residents have some, but not all, of the problems," Mr. Martin said. "Existing residents are causing roads to deteriorate."

Reach Betsy Gilliland at (803) 648-1395, ext. 113, or betsy.gilliland@augustachronicle.com.

POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS

For the Aiken Area only:

• Southern Connector (Anderson Pond Road): $3.5 million
• Powderhouse Road and North-South Connector: $14 million
• Hitchcock Bypass widening (U.S. Highway 1 to Silver Bluff Road): $16 million
• Pawnee Street extension to Dougherty Road: $1.2 million
• Whiskey Road improvements: $5 million
• University Parkway: $5 million
• Silver Bluff Road widening for right-turn lane from Pine Log Road to Dougherty Road: $2 million
• Dougherty Road widening: $8 million
• Intersection improvements on Dougherty Road at Whiskey and Silver Bluff roads: $1 million
• Robert Bell/Northwest Bypass (U.S. Highway 1 to S.C. Highway 19): $25 million
• Silver Bluff Road widening (Richardson Lake Road to four-lane intersection): $8 million