SC Work Zone Safety Bills Filed

Last week, two work zone safety bills were filed in the South Carolina Senate and the House, S. 565 and H. 4033.

Carolinas AGC, along with SCDOT, are pushing for the quick passage of these bills in an effort to make our construction work zones safer for our members and the employees of SCDOT who work in these zones.

A Senate Transportation Subcommittee met and took up S. 565. Secretary of SC Department of Transportation Christy Hall (and 2016 CAGC Build with the Best Pinnacle Award recipient), CAGC Director of Government Relations Leslie Clark, and CAGC Board member Casey Schwager, Sloan Construction, all testified before the members of the Subcommittee, who passed the bill favorably out of the subcommittee.

Secretary Hall told the subcommittee members, “SCDOT is at 39 and holding; that’s the number of SCDOT employees who have been killed in a work zone.” Clark testified that “multiple members are seeing anywhere from 40– 80 accidents each year in construction work zones; they don’t want to have call an employee’s family to tell them they are not coming home from work that night.” And Schwager wrapped up the testimony by sharing some of the horror stories he and his company have seen working in these work zones, stating that “at the beginning of the project they have been working on, on I-85 in Greenville, we were seeing three accidents a week. Drivers refuse to slow down and most are distracted by texting and flying through these work zones at 30 and 40 miles per hour faster than the posted speed limits of 45 mph.”

The full Senate Transportation Committee is expected to take up the bill this week.