COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW)—Some South Carolina lawmakers got a different perspective on the debate over fixing state roads after touring an asphalt plant and a quarry Wednesday morning in Columbia. Members of the House Education and Public Works Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee toured Sloan Construction’s asphalt plant and the Vulcan Materials quarry.
They saw how asphalt is made, how the plant is controlled, and went inside the testing lab where materials are checked to make sure they meet quality standards. “It’s a pretty interesting process and a complicated scientific process, and you have to get it right. But I was impressed by the scope and scale of this,” Rep. Jason Elliott, R-Greenville, said after the tour.
They rode vans down into the quarry, the bottom of which is 425 feet below sea level. Vulcan mines granite there, which is used to make gravel and other road building materials.
Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, said after the tour, “Companies like Sloan and like Vulcan, they’re making investments in their facilities, because we hear a lot of times, ‘Well, there’s not a contractor base in South Carolina that can perform the work, even if DOT had more money.’ Well we know that’s not the case. In Berkeley Co, which I represent, Vulcan has invested more than $11 million and another asphalt company has invested more than $9 million in new and upgraded facilities so they can handle the increased workload the DOT will have.”
They also talked about the impact a roads bill would have on jobs in the state. Bill Tomlinson, with highway contractor CR Jackson, Inc., said, “With the increase in funding that we’ve seen, we’ve actually been able to grow our business some. It’s the first time in a decade we’ve been able to say things like ‘growth’ and ‘expansion’ and we’re not down-sizing or right-sizing, we’re actually providing better opportunities for our employees and their families, and we’re counting on this highway bill to pass so we can expand our efforts in that as well.” He says if lawmakers do pass a roads bill that provides more money, he’d expect the road-building industry in the state to expand 20 to 30 percent.
Rep. Elliott says, “There’s a lot of opportunity and a lot of good-paying jobs and we just need to make students aware that this is an option for them to consider.”
