SOCASTEE, SC (WBTW) – Horry County and the South Carolina Department of Transportation say work will be complete on the SC 31 extension in November.
The county and SCDOT held a briefing on the SC 31 extension and a tour of remaining work on the project on Monday.
The briefing begin at 11 a.m., said Kelly Moore, Horry County’s Director of Public Information. The tour started immediately following the briefing.
“The biggest challenge we had is behind us. We had to go out and replace a section of the deck on the Intracoastal Waterway Bridge,” said Leland Colvin of the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
150 feet of pavement on the new bridge started to crack shortly after it was installed. SCDOT says the construction contractor is to blame.
Flatiron Construction is being fined $5,000 per day for their part in the project’s delay. Flatiron will continue to pay the fine until the project is finished.
As of March 31, when the project was 587 days late, Flatiron owed $2,935,000. That money is deducted from the final project cost.
Flatiron has since subcontracted United Construction to repair the bridge.
Four separate hurricanes also factored in to the delay.
“This project has been a challenging project for us. Certainly if you go back to 2015 and you had Hurricane Joaquin back in the fall of 2015. 2016 we had Hurricane Matthew. 2017 we had Hurricane Irma and just last fall we had Hurricane Florence,” said Colvin, “So we’ve had some challenging weather associated with this project.”
SCDOT previously said there was no date set for when the extension would be completed. It was originally scheduled to be finished in June 2017.
