Governor McMaster spent some of his Friday under Charleston.
“I think it’s most impressive, magnificent engineering. Like I said, we think this is unique,” McMaster said.
140 feet under Charleston could lie an answer to some of the city’s flooding issues.
Two tunnels spanning more than a mile and a half underground are part of the Spring Fishburne Drainage Improvement Project. They’ll will carry water to a new pump station between the Ashley River Bridges on U.S. 17.
Once there, water will be pumped into the Ashley River at 360,000 gallons a minute.
They’re systems Governor McMaster wanted to see.
“It’s part of our Flooding Commission to work with Mayor Tecklenburg and former Mayor Riley and all those involved to see that Charleston and the surrounding areas are able to keep working 100 percent,” McMaster said.
The tunnels weren’t McMaster’s first stop Friday. He spent the morning at Charles Towne Landing speaking with the Flooding Commission.
“We are ahead of the game in our thinking and our responses and our knowledge of what to do, but we are drawing on the brain power from all around the world in order to get answers and then we will take action,” McMaster said.
It was after the commission meeting and after planting a couple of sweet grass plants that McMaster and Mayor John Tecklenburg met at the tunnels to lead a group of commission members inside.
“I don’t know of a finer group, a more experienced brain power that I’ve seen for something like this. We’ve got a lot of talent in South Carolina and it’s been harnessed to do this work and it really is a great, great thing that we’re doing here,” McMaster said.