Bamberg County bridge mistakenly placed on replacement list

The S.C. Department of Transportation had the bridge on its list of bridges to be replaced when it was publicly owned.

The bridge is now privately owned. SCDOT inadvertently listed the replacement of the bridge over Lemon Swamp as part of its 10-year road and bridge improvement plan earlier this month.

“SCDOT did have a bridge replacement project proposed at this location that started design back in 2020,” SCDOT said Friday in a statement. “Through our public involvement process, postcards were sent out to local residents.”

“One of the property owners contacted SCDOT and expressed a desire to take over ownership of a portion of the road and for the bridge replacement effort to be abandoned,” the statement continued. “SCDOT ran this through our maintenance, preconstruction and right-of-way to offices to determine if the road needed to be retained.”

“There were no objections raised internally,” the statement continued. “An action was filed in court to remove the roadway in April 2021 and SCDOT did not object to the abandonment. The courts approved the closures in late October 2021.”

“SCDOT immediately put the bridge replacement project on hold after the request for abandonment and no further work has been performed in over a year,” SCDOT said.

The department’s project viewer did not keep up with actions taken to privatize the road. SCDOT is in the process of its website to indicate the change.