DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – The Dorchester County Council members met Monday night and approved a five-year capital improvement plan for the fiscal year 2025-2029.
This plan outlines the projects of top priority that the county must address. The county council decides on its most important projects during its planning and budgeting process.
The total plan comes out to $1.6 billion. The funding for these projects comes from multiple sources such as general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, grants, the county’s one-cent transportation sales tax, the South Carolina transportation infrastructure bank, and existing department fund balances.
Dorchester County Council Vice Chairman David Chinnis says that even though it is called a five-year plan, they make decisions that will benefit the county long term.
“Even though we are calling it a five-year plan, some of these projects won’t be completed in five years, some of these projects won’t even be started until five years from now,” Chinnis says. “It’s always important for us to make sure that we are putting that money and the projects ahead of what we’re looking at planning for the future, regardless of what anyone may believe, planning for the future is what we do.”
Chinnis says the key focus areas are transportation projects and water and sewage projects because of the growth the county is experiencing.
For water and sewer projects, the most critical ones are the Dorchester County Regional Water Interconnection Project, Highway 178 Water Line Extension, and Woodland High School Wastewater Force Main.
Chinnis says that the need for water and sewer projects isn’t anything new.
“There is any number of large, larger industrial projects that we’ve put in place over time. Part of our capital improvement project, again, you have to have infrastructure, you’ve got to have water and sewer, which is critical to any industry, any commercial development at all,” Chinnis says. “That’s been, gosh, as long as I’ve been on council that part, water and sewer has been a project.”
Many of the transportation projects they are looking at are the same ones listed in the penny sales tax program that was approved by Dorchester County residents in 2022.
“Some of the major projects we’ve looked at are the widening of Dorchester Road and that works in conjunction with Charleston County also widening Dorchester Road. It’d be interesting to see them widen to six lanes and us stay in four lanes and the challenge we would have at the county line, so, we’re looking at widening six lanes on Dorchester Road as well,” Chinnis says.
Another key project is the widening of Orangeburg Road from Dorchester Road all the way down to Highway 78. Chinnis says these projects are important from a safety standpoint, from an evacuation standpoint, and ultimately just being able to move people from point A to point B.
Another transportation project, one that Chinnis says many don’t think about, is their airport.
“We’re very intently focusing on that airport. Improving the hanger capability, hopefully extending the runways for the ability to be able to get some more small, private jets in and out of here from a standpoint of getting industry and encouraging those folks to come in,” he says.
Dorchester County Council Chairman, Todd Friddle, says the goal of these projects is to make the lives of those that live in the county easier.
“It’s going to give them a better quality of life with better water, better water sources, and it’s going to give them better transportation. These main two areas are water and transportation and so it’s going to make their commute life easier and it’s going to make their water source a whole lot better,” he says.
Friddle encourages those interested in learning more and wanting to follow along on their project updates to visit their website, as they have their entire five-year capital improvement plan for the fiscal year 2025-2029 posted in a document.
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