Roads within the County are typically maintained by either the State, the County’s Public Works Department, or the municipality in which the road falls. To find out who maintains a road, you can use the Street Finder on the South Carolina Department of Transportation’s website, the Charleston County GIS Viewer, or contact the Charleston County Public Works Department at 843-202-7600. Once you have determined who maintains a road, you can report maintenance issues to the corresponding entity.

Traffic calming procedures depend on who maintains the road in question. To find out who maintains a road, you can use the Street Finder on the South Carolina Department of Transportation’s website, the Charleston County GIS Viewer, or contact the Public Works Department at 843-202-7600. Once you have determined who maintains the road, you can contact that entity to enquire about their traffic calming procedures.

Please refer to our Funding page on this website.

Dirt roads are typically maintained by the municipality in which the road falls or by Charleston County’s Public Works Department. To find out who maintains a road, you can use the Charleston County GIS Viewer or contact the Public Works department at 843-202-7600. Once you have determined who maintains the road, contact the corresponding entity to find out about paving options.

If your property is damaged on a Public Works construction site, please contact the department immediately at 843-202-6137. We will help you to submit a claim.

Road resurfacing is dependent on who maintains the road. Charleston County’s Pavement Management System works out of a database that contains Charleston County paved roads, State of South Carolina secondary paved roads, and Municipal paved roads. The database keeps track of the condition of these roads. When a road reaches a “good” to “fair” condition rating, it becomes a candidate for resurfacing. When a road reaches “poor” to “very poor” condition rating, it becomes a candidate for reconstruction. To find out whether a road in the Pavement Management System is on the list for resurfacing or reconstruction, please contact Public Works. For more information regarding the Pavement Management System, click here.

The Public Works Department receives Transportation Sales Tax (TST) and “C” fund allocation requests annual. Allocation project requests come from municipalities within Charleston County, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), Charleston County Parks and Recreation Committee (CCPRC), Charleston County Aviation Authority, Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG), and the Charleston County School District. If you have any transportation infrastructure concerns or project ideas, please contact Public Works . Our department will ensure that your project ideas are sent to the corresponding location jurisdiction. Please note that all requested projects must have a maintenance source outside of the TST or “C” funding. For more information regarding allocation projects, please see the Funding page on this website.

Starting a transportation infrastructure improvement project is complex. Three tasks must be completed before construction can begin.

1. Local Public Agency
   
   If a Local Public Agency (LPA) wishes to manage a project with state or federal funding, the LPA must be recognized by the Local Public Agency Administrator (LPAA). Transportation Development acts as an LPA for Charleston County, and the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) acts as the LPAA. Transportation Development must complete the following steps in order to begin managing state or federally funded projects:
   
   
   1. Submission of an LPA Qualification Evaluation Form
   2. A successful assessment of LPA qualifications
   3. Identification of sufficient funding
   4. Completion of a field review and scope of development
   5. Development of a participation agreement
   6. Completing established procedures for programming SCDOT projects
   7. Execution of a Participation Agreement and receive a Notice to Proceed
   8. Proper execution of invoices and payment for reimbursement
   
   This process can take anywhere from six (6) months to two (2) years to complete.
   


2. National Environmental Policy Act
   
   All Federal-aid projects and/or projects with the need for Federal-permitting must comply and adhere to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The lengthy NEPA process requires the completion of the following:
   
   
   1. Public Information Meetings
   2. Technical Studies (18)
      
      
      1. Air Quality
      2. Architectural/Archaeological Resources
      3. Businesses
      4. Cemeteries
      5. Churches, Schools, Parks
      6. Construction Feasibility
      7. Cost
      8. Endangered Species
      9. Existing/Planned Utilities
      10. Farmlands
      11. Floodplains
      12. Hazardous Materials
      13. Historical/Cultural Resources
      14. New/Planned Developments
      15. Noise
      16. Residential Areas
      17. State/Federal Lands
      18. Wetlands/Waterways
      
      
   3. Development of Alternatives
   4. Analyze Alternatives
   5. Development of a Preferred Alternative
   6. Preparation of a draft Environmental Assessment
   7. A Public Hearing
   8. Revision of the preferred alternative
   9. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) decision

   The NEPA process often takes three (3) to eight (8) years to complete.

3. Plan Development
   
   The last steps that must be completed prior to construction beginning include design, permitting, utility relocations and Right of Way (ROW) acquisition. These final stages require a tremendous amount of coordination between Transportation Development, the design consultant, SCDOT, the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and the Army Corp of Engineers.

Once all three (3) of the tasks outlined above are complete, then Transportation Development can begin the construction process. Construction is often the shortest component of a federally funded project. For a more detailed description of the steps of the LPA, NEPA, and Plan Development process, click here.

Level of service (LOS) is a scale that rates how well a transportation facility is operating from a traveler's perspective. Typically, the six levels of service are rated from from A to F, with LOS A representing the best operating conditions, and LOS F the worst. Project managers use LOS to describe how a roadway or intersection is currently functioning, or how they will function in the future with or without improvements.

For a roadway:

• A – free flow of vehicles, low traffic density
• B – minimum delay, stable traffic flow
• C – stable condition, movements between lanes somewhat restricted due to higher traffic volumes, but tolerable for motorists
• D – movements between lanes is more restricted, travel speeds begin to decline
• E – traffic fills capacity of the roadway, vehicles are closely spaced, any incidents can cause serious impact to traffic flow
• F – forced flow where the number of vehicles on the road is higher than capacity of the roadway, resulting in a breakdown of traffic flow

For a intersection:

• A – minimal delays
• B – low levels of delay and short line up of vehicles
• C – occasionally vehicles wait through more than one cycle at a traffic signal, occasionally backups may develop, traffic flow still stable and acceptable
• D – delays at intersections may become long, but the traffic signal cycles through enough when less vehicle demand occurs to allow for intermittent clearance, preventing excessive backups. *LOS D has historically been regarded as a desirable design objective in urban areas
• E – traffic fills intersection capacity, long line of vehicles and delays, many vehicles need to wait through more than one traffic signal cycle
• F – traffic demand exceeds capacity of intersection, very long line for vehicles and delays, most vehicles need to wait through more than one traffic signal cycle