Lol. Just got some inside scoop from a little birdie......

Nov 20, 2023, 9:46 AM

Anyone who has driven into and around Columbia already knows they've started on two sections of a project to fix malfunction junction. It's called Carolina Crossroads, and it's already been approved by SCDOT (the general design/layout). The project is just under $2 billion and will be the most expensive road project ever in SC. It was so big, they could not find any single bidder willing to accept that level of risk to do that large of a project. So they broke the project into phases, soliciting bids for the smaller phases to companies in an attempt to get work started. There is currently work being done on I-26 and I-126, with several new bridges being added near Greystone Blvd. on Phase one of CCR. Phases one and two are already underway.

Well, CCR Phase 3 is what these other two projects (already underway) will tie into. It is the most important and largest of the CCR contracts, as it ties all the others together at the main intersection of I-20 and 26.

Well, SCDOT just yanked the RFP from the two companies bidding on it. The companies have incurred, and will be paid $11 million for the expenses they've incurred to create their proposals, BUT, the bidding on CCR3 has been stopped, and it is no longer being solicited for bids by SCDOT, as SCDOT goes back to the drawing board to figure out what to do now.

This means.....

All that work they're currently doing on 126 and I-20, is going to be tied into NOTHING..... as it stands. SCDOT says they screwed up in their final plans for CCR Phase 3 as they failed to take into account moving utilities, and rock in the soil that would make their prior plans FAR exceed budget, if they could even be done in the first place.

Anyway, here's the letter SCDOT sent out. They're basically paying the companies $11 million for their engineering, architectural, environmental and soil studies, and civil engineering work (etc.) done to date for the proposals. And they're taking the RFP OFF THE TABLE. As it stands, at least right now, the project is dead in the water with no plan for completion. They're working on two phases right now though, that will tie into who knows what, as SCDOT has just shitcanned Phase 3, which connects the work already being done. They say they will have an idea for a new Phase 3 and will solicit RFP's on that in 2024, once they figure out what the #### they're doing.

https://www.scdot.org/business/pdf/CCRPhase3/Memo%20-%20Cancellation%20of%20CCR%20Phase%203%20Procurement%20-%20Project%20ID%20P039720.pdf

This is the media spin on that letter:
https://www.wltx.com/article/traffic/crossroads-update-south-carolina-malfunction-junction/101-055f8f58-2e6e-499f-a1a0-ba8154df86e6