Getting Answers: HWY 412

ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - We are getting answers about your Upstate road concerns.

This week, we are taking a look at a crumbling road in southern Anderson County.

Highway 412 runs about seven miles, taking drivers from Townville to Starr.

We received a submission from a viewer concerned about a bridge with uneven asphalt.

Other neighbors told us the same thing, so we asked the South Carolina Department of Transportation what’s being done about it.

“This road has gotten so bad that I bypass it and come down another road because it bounces the tractor so much.”

Surrounded by farmland, Lewis Baker lives on Highway 412 in Starr.

“A lot of farm trucks, heavy trucks, chicken trucks go down the road here,” Lewis said, “It’s just a lot of heavy trucks and it’s doing a lot of damage to the roads.”

The seven-mile stretch is cracked and battered.

“Like you’re on a two-horse buggy route back in the seventeen or eighteen hundreds. That’s what it feels like,” Lewis said.

A viewer, Mike, wrote in with concerns about a bridge. “The asphalt road sits below the edge of the concrete bridge on both sides that I have to slow to less than 5 mph as I cross or leave the bridge or I will experience an abrupt shock to my tires.  About a year ago, there was a sign that indicated the SC Highway Department was going to do work on this bridge but nothing has been done.”

Baker agrees, “The bridges are in terrible shape. One needs to be replaced completely. It was supposed to be replaced a year or two ago. Then, it was supposed to be replaced this past April. Still nothing has been done about it.”

After a recent storm and heavy rain, Baker said the bridge needs work.

“The water got over the bridge down the road here and the water got over the bridge about a foot or sixteen inches. It actually washed out a cement pier under the water line that crosses beside the bridge,” Baker said.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation said the bridge is currently load restricted, and they are putting out bids for construction next year.

“It needs to be done. Something needs to be done now,” Baker said.

While no other upcoming projects are scheduled for Highway 412, the bridge is scheduled to be replaced sometime in 20-24.

Submit your road and bridge concerns and FOX Carolina will work on getting answers for you.

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