State pothole repair records full of holes

By RICK BRUNDRETT

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a two-article package on road issues facing South Carolinians. The other story can be found here.

From fiscal year 2020 through the first six months of this fiscal year, the S.C. Department of Transportation might have patched up to 8.1 million potholes statewide, though agency records released to The Nerve didn’t specify how many potholes were repaired more than once.

The records, which The Nerve obtained after submitting several state Freedom of Information Act requests starting in 2024, show that DOT spent a total of nearly $203 million to fix potholes over the 6.5-year period.

How long a repaired pothole lasts depends on a variety of factors, including traffic levels, weather and underlying road conditions, and materials and methods used to patch the hole, according to industry literature.

For example, a temporary “cold-mix” asphalt patch, which often involves asphalt shoveled into a pothole and compacted by passing vehicle tires, could last up to two years in low-traffic residential areas or fail within weeks or months on interstates.

In theory, if all maximum 8.1 million repaired potholes in The Nerve’s review used cold-mix patches and had to be refilled annually, there would have been a total of about 1.25 million unique potholes over the 6.5-year period.

A Greenville County official contacted by The Nerve said if done correctly under general conditions, potholes patched by the county typically last one to two years before needing to be refilled, though the lifespan of a repaired pothole can vary greatly depending on the situation. A DOT spokeswoman couldn’t provide an average lifespan of patched potholes on state-maintained roads, citing multiple reasons.

The Nerve’s review of DOT work reports found that nearly 56,000, or about 13.5%, of the 415,248 released pothole-repair records from July 1, 2019, through last Dec. 31 didn’t identify the roads where patching was done, accounting for about 42% of the maximum number of the fixed potholes. Virtually all of the unidentified roads were included in records from fiscal years 2020 through 2024.

The fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.

For identified roads over the 6.5-year period, the records didn’t indicate whether the same initially repaired pothole was refilled.

Following is the total maximum number of repaired potholes by fiscal year, according to DOT work reports:

*First six months

No explanation was provided in the released records about why the number of filled potholes dropped nearly 50% from the end of fiscal year 2024 to the end of fiscal 2025, or why this fiscal year’s pace of repairs is similar to the 2025 numbers.

The Nerve’s review found that a median seven potholes per work report – which represents the halfway point among all records – were repaired over the 6.5-year period.

In a 2024 written response to The Nerve, DOT described its “accomplishment” numbers in provided records for fiscal years 2020 through 2024 as the “number of potholes filled.”

As for the records for fiscal year 2025 and the first six months of this fiscal year, DOT in an email response in March identified the work as “Pothole Patching,” noting, “This work includes the patching of potholes, the restoration of the pavement edge and the leveling of small depressions and irregularities by hand using asphalt and/or with a pothole patching machine using stone and emulsion.”

Separately, DOT records provided to The Nerve show that the agency received a total of 186,918 pothole repair requests statewide over the 6.5-year period, ranging in full fiscal years from 26,262 to 32,061.

Regarding the large difference between the numbers of work requests and filled potholes in a fiscal year, DOT in its 2024 response to The Nerve said, “Most of the time, and especially for pothole patching, a single DWR (daily work report) will include costs and accomplishments for multiple work requests as well as any unrequested work that is identified and worked on by the crew on that specific day.”

SC roads improving?

In an email response last week to The Nerve, DOT spokeswoman Kelly Moore said, when asked about a filled pothole’s average lifespan, that it’s “difficult to generalize the process because maintenance repairs vary depending on the weather conditions, the surface of the roadway, and the traffic on the road.”

“In some instances, we make a temporary repair or patch until conditions are suitable for a longer-term repair,” Moore said. “If a road is scheduled for full depth patching and resurfacing, a temporary repair might be used in the interim.”

Moore said the department “follows state law when determining the priority lists for resurfacing and paving projects – some key factors include the condition of the pavement and the amount of traffic on the roadway,” adding that among the approximately 41,000 miles of public roads maintained by DOT, “there are instances where very low volume routes do not qualify for the statewide paving list and the conditions warrant repairs instead of a full rehabilitation.”

“We rely on our local partnerships to help us bridge those gaps on what might be considered ‘neighborhood’ roads – in South Carolina that includes County Transportation Committees and local sales tax programs, among others, as we work together to improve the transportation network in South Carolina,” she added.

The Nerve last week submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for a number of other DOT pothole records, as directed by Moore.

The Nerve’s latest review found that of the total maximum 4.71 million patched potholes on identified roads statewide over the 6.5-year period, 3.94 million, or about 84%, were on secondary roads. The maximum number of repaired potholes on other types of roads for the period were as follows: S.C. highways (477,623), U.S. highways (219,520), interstates (63,929), highway ramps (7,585) and ramp spurs (121).

DOT work reports listed another maximum 3.39 million potholes filled on unidentified roads statewide – virtually all done from fiscal years 2020 through 2024 – or about 42% of the total maximum 8.1 million repaired potholes, The Nerve’s review found.

South Carolina maintains more than 41,000 miles of a 60,000-plus-mile public road system – the fourth-largest, state-maintained system in the nation, according to DOT. In a fiscal 2025-26 “Pavement Improvement Program” report present to the DOT Commission in May 2025, agency officials listed the following types of state-maintained roads, as well as the percentage of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and the fiscal year’s funding amounts for those roads:

The report noted that as of 2024, 80% of interstate pavements were in  “good” condition, compared to 41%, 30%, and 18% for primary routes (U.S. and S.C. highways), secondary farm-to-market roads connecting residential or rural areas to highways, and neighborhood streets, respectively. Conditions on all roads improved compared to the baseline percentages in 2016, according to the report.

But according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, although the national average of “acceptable” road miles increased from 79.18% in 2013 to 80.95% in 2024, the acceptable rate in South Carolina declined from 86.82% to 80.26% during the same period, as pointed out in analysis published last week by the South Carolina Policy Council – The Nerve’s parent organization.

The Nerve last year revealed that from Jan. 3, 2020, through July 25, 2025, 11,588 pothole claims totaling $43.5 million were filed against the state DOT. Of the total claims, 5,112, or 44%, were approved with a collective $4.7 million in settlements.

Reform proposals

In 2017, the S.C. Legislature raised the state gasoline tax by a total of 12 cents per gallon over six years – a 75% hike from the base 16 cents. Lawmakers at the time promised that the money would be used to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges, though The Nerve repeatedly has pointed out the relatively slow pace of completed projects while a special fund created with the law has accumulated massive surpluses.

Through February of this year, the “Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund” had a cash balance of $1.28 billion, DOT and S.C. Comptroller General’s Office records show. DOT has maintained that the reserves are designated for pending vendor payments, though the cash balance in recent years routinely has been more than $1 billion.

Besides paving projects, hundreds of millions of dollars under the gas-tax-hike law have been “committed” for other purposes, such as interstate widenings and rural road safety projects, DOT records show.

In its analysis released last week, the Policy Council recommended a number of reforms aimed at improving the state’s road system, including:

• Allowing the governor to nominate the Secretary of Transportation, who heads DOT, with Senate confirmation.
• Abolishing the DOT Commission and the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank.
• Simplifying project prioritization, with an emphasis on fixing the worst roads first.
• Returning local roads to counties and municipalities, with adequate state funding for any transfers.

The S.C. House on Wednesday unanimously passed an amended Senate transportation-reform bill that would, among other things, abolish the DOT Commission and give the governor the authority to appoint the Secretary of Transportation with Senate confirmation, though it dropped a Senate proposal to allow the transfer of state-maintained roads to counties or municipalities.

The House kept a Senate proposal that would require DOT to fix a pothole within seven days of receiving notification of the pothole’s location, and that each repair be a “permanent repair unless weather conditions, emergency events, supplier availability, or other exigent circumstances requires a temporary repair until a permanent repair can be made.”

It’s unclear whether the Senate will agree to the House changes. If not, a joint House-Senate committee could be appointed to work out differences between the bill versions, though there are only two weeks left in the regular legislative session under state law.

In their respective versions of the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1, the House and Senate each proposed a road “buyback” program that would allow DOT to transfer state-maintained roads to counties or municipalities. The House and Senate would appropriate $25 million and $12.5 million, respectively, out of state surplus funds to help with the transfers.

But the “buyback” program would be established under budget provisos, which are effective for only one year unless renewed annually.

‘Band-Aid’ fix

At the local level, The Nerve’s review found that of the total maximum 4.71 million potholes on identified roads that were filled by DOT over the 6.5-year period, 2.18 million potholes, or 46%, were repaired in 10 counties, four of which were smaller, rural counties.

Following is the top-10 list:

Regarding total pothole repair costs on identified roads over the period, Lexington County led all 46 counties with $7.11 million in overall labor, equipment and material costs, followed by Richland ($4.78 million), York ($4.62 million), Williamsburg ($4.35 million), Horry ($4.15 million), Spartanburg ($4.08 million), Florence ($3.91 million), Sumter ($3.8 million), Lancaster ($3.69 million) and Greenville ($3.65 million), The Nerve's review found.

In total, $202.9 million was spent statewide by DOT over the 6.5 years, including about $94.3 million, $81 million, and $27.6 million in labor, equipment, and material costs, respectively, The Nerve’s review found. The median, or midway, cost per work report during the period was $239.

The Nerve this month sent written questions to more than a dozen county administrators or other county officials, asking them about DOT’s work in their respective counties and their own work on repairing potholes on county roads. About half of them responded.

Officials from Williamsburg County, which led the state in the maximum number of potholes filled by DOT on identified roads, or Lexington County, which had the second-highest number, didn’t respond.

Chesterfield County Administrator Michelle Stanley in a written response said DOT “doesn’t work directly through the county local government,” referring questions about the state agency’s work in the county to a local DOT official. She noted that the county maintains more than 600 miles of dirt roads.

In Clarendon County, Administrator Walt Ackerman said the county owns 501 roads, adding: “Over 95% are not paved. Most are dirt; some have rock or millings to improve the surface.”

In Florence County, Public Works Director Steven Allen in a written response said there are 638 miles of county roads, of which 376 miles, 174 miles and 88 miles are dirt, paved and rock roads, respectively.

Asked about the main causes of potholes, Allen provided the following reasons:

• Insufficient base preparation – Most potholes occur on roads built years before the county upgraded its minimum base requirements to 6 inches of compacted stone and 2 inches of asphalt surface course.
• Improper drainage issues – “If water sits on a road and/or the base material stays wet, the base can soften and the freeze/thaw cycle can crack and tear up the asphalt surface course,” he said.
• Heavy trucks on non-commercial roads – “Heavy vehicles can tear up roads if the street was only designed for light residential traffic,” he said, though adding that it’s “not a typical problem” for the county given that most paved county roads have “no significant truck traffic.”
• Age and wear of the surface course – Some 20-plus-year-old commercial roads in the industrial park are “developing potholes just due to age and use,” he said.

“Pothole filling is a ‘Band-Aid’ temporary fix,” Allen said. “There is no real ‘fix’ for a pothole except a full-depth patch,” explaining that process involves cutting out the bad asphalt, excavating and removing the base material, then replacing it with a new, properly compacted base material and a new asphalt patch, or resurfacing the road.

In Greenville County – the state’s largest county – Hesha Gamble, who is the assistant administrator for public works, planning and development, said the county is responsible for more than 1,850 miles of roads, most of which are in residential areas, noting that the DOT and county collectively “maintain more miles of roads than any other county in the state.”

Asked about the main causes of potholes in the county, Gamble replied, “Utility cuts (on roads) or areas where the pavement has degraded and the freeze/thaw cycles have caused the asphalt to break up more.” She added that the county has upgraded its encroachment ordinance to limit roadway utility cuts and provide “higher restoration standards.”

Gamble said the average total cost to repair a pothole is $150 to $180, with “plant hot mix asphalt” typically used.

Depending on a variety of factors, such as traffic volume, weather conditions and installation quality, some repaired potholes can “last for many years,” while others have to be “redone within a month,” she said.

“If done well and under general conditions, a year or two would probably be typical,” Gamble said.

In the meantime, however, South Carolina motorists likely will continue driving over pothole-riddled roads statewide.

Motorists who want to request potholes to be fixed can contact SCDOT online here or by calling the agency’s customer service center at 855-467-2368.  

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-394-8273 or [email protected]. Follow The Nerve on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) @thenervesc.

Nerve stories are free to reprint and repost with permission by and credit to The Nerve.