One citizens’ group is driving hard for fixes to Greenville County streets
The condition of Greenville County roadways has one Upstate organization driving for change.
Citizens for a Better Greenville County is building a coalition of individuals, businesses and neighborhood associations to promote better, safer roads, said Bob Knight, spokesman for the group.
The organization will speak to civic groups, neighborhoods and anyone who will listen to get the message across Greenville County, he said. “Failure to act now will only allow our roads to get worse, creating more potholes, more traffic and more congestion.”
There are two ways to calculate the repercussions of not upgrading the roadways, Knight said.
First, individual motorists suffer from actual damage to their vehicles – which some estimates range up to $400 per year – as well as the frustration felt by traffic delays and congestion, he said. Secondly, taxpayers will have to pay more when the roads must be rebuilt rather than simply resurfaced.
“It is a classic example of pay me now, or pay me later,” Knight said.
Greenville County maintains 1,735 centerline miles of roads and is able to resurface approximately 30 miles of road per year, officials say, which means that under the current resurfacing programs, each road will be resurfaced on a 53-year cycle.
Greenville County estimates 38 percent of their maintained roads have an Overall Condition Index of less than 69, which the state considers “fair” condition. The OCI for Greenville County’s current resurfacing list averages 42, which is “poor” condition, according to the Greenville Citizen Roads Advisory Commission Report.
In June, County Council approved adding a local option referendum to the November ballot asking if voters will approve a 1 percent sales tax hike dedicated to county road improvements. If approved, state law limits the tax hike to eight years and requires that the money be spent only on the projects listed on the ballot.
Council Chairman Bob Taylor said the estimated cost for the entire project list compiled by the citizen roads commission is $680 million.
The roads commission created the project list after a series of public hearings to gather public input, he said. The commission is made up of citizens from every County Council district and each municipality in Greenville County.
If the referendum passes in November, Taylor said the tax hike is expected to generate approximately $67 million annually. It could expire before the eight-year limit “if the target amount is raised sooner,” he said.
