COLUMBIA — A bill meant to speed up construction projects in South Carolina is headed to the governor’s desk.
Both the House and Senate agreed Tuesday to a compromise on their differing versions.
The main thrust of the bill, a priority for leaders in both chambers this year, is to help the Department of Transportation accelerate its work by building optional toll lanes and taking control of a federal environmental permitting process. Neither chamber made major changes to those proposals.
Under the compromise, the nine-member commission overseeing roads projects will dissolve Jan. 1, as the House suggested. The governor will instead become the director’s boss, adding the agency to the 23 already in the governor’s Cabinet.
The compromise removed a program the Senate proposed incentivizing counties to take over maintenance of state-owned secondary roads. That program caused problems in the House, where some members mistakenly believed it would require counties to pay for roads they couldn’t afford.
Not included in the final product were increased fees on electric vehicles, which the Senate initially proposed but took out of its bill. The House opted against it too.
Instead, the bill will raise money to fund road projects through so-called “choice lanes.” Those added toll lanes would give drivers the option to pay to bypass traffic on major highways, reducing congestion for both the paid and free lanes and raising enough money to fund more projects, bill supporters said.
Unlike in the House version of the bill, those lanes would not need approval from legislators.
Both chambers allowed private companies to build and operate the toll lanes, so that provision was locked in ahead of negotiations.
The bill also requires the transportation department to repair potholes within a week of someone reporting them online or through an app the agency will have to create.
Each year, the department will have to set aside $15 million to fix potholes.
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