By:Jordan Moore
Richland county has 347 bridges on its roads and many of them are in terrible shape. Department of Transportation Engineer Robert Dickinson says he wants to take immediate action to fix them.
"I would like to replace,I can come up with 50 just in Richland County that I would like to replace this year so when the money comes,were ready to go," he says.
The Willingham Road Bridge, one of a few that are actually going to be completely torn down, because of the limited budget.
One bridge, off of Forest drive on Willingham Road was built in 1963. It is one of the lucky ones that will be replaced, because it can no longer hold the load that it was built for.
"It's a typical bridge that is continuing to get bad and there is a lot of traffic on that road so that one was selected to be replaced," says Dickinson.
The Willingham bridge is scheduled to be replaced this summer.
Some people who work in the area had no idea this bridge was so bad.
"I would hate for a customer to have an accident or something bad to happen because of the state of the bridge," says Katie Rock who works at a store on Forest drive.
Janie Beville works on the corner of Willingham Road and was also unaware of the deteriorating bridge.
"I would have chosen a different route I could have gone Forest Drive instead of crossing the Willingham bridge had I known it was not stable," says Beville.
Some bridges, like the Cedar Creek Bridge in Blythewood, will just be patched up to keep it in service because of budget problems.
"There most recent inspection on this particular bridge indicated that there is some repair needed very quickly and so out bridge crew has closed the road and they are going to take up the decking. Where they can get to underneath the bridge to do some repairs so its not as critical," says Dickinson.
Dickinson hopes to replace more than just the Willingham road bridge in 2012, but says he will have to wait and see what the future budget holds.
The Willingham road bridge built in 1963 is scheduled to be replaced this summer.
Robert Dickinson SCDOT District 1 Engineer would like to see a budget increase so all of the bridges that need repair can be fixed.
The Cedar Creek Bridge in Blythewood built in 1940 has been fixed multiple times because of a lack of budget.
