It is an ambitious project along Red Bank Road.
Berkeley County accepted a bid to replace aging sewer lines with larger pipes to increase capacity, but the project is bogged down with delays and unexpected costs.
According to county records, the project, bid at $ 8.3 million, is $3 million over budget and close to a year behind schedule. Residents and businesses are affected by the work that started in March of 2022. Since then, there have been eight change orders to the work.
“I have been on council for nine years, and I have never had more than two change orders, much less eight,” said District 2 Berkeley County Council member Josh Whitley.
Feeling they are flushing away taxpayer money, council members recently gave the company doing the work an earful and a deadline.
“I can see a lot of unknowns on this project,” said Michael Woodcock of Portland Utilities Construction Company, who was granted the project. “As you can imagine, with all these unknowns and all these issues that have come up — and I know you guys are frustrated, trust me, we are frustrated, too. We’ve been here way longer than we wanted. Our folks are getting tired. Your folks are tired of looking at us. It’s not a great situation.”
The frustration is boiling over for business owners as well. Temporary barriers and orange barrels are set up all along Red Bank Road, putting a pinch on customer traffic. Along with her husband, Melisa Prevatte is the owner of Bald Monkey Beanery on Red Bank Road, and they have been hit hard by the length of the work.
“Every year since opening, our business has substantially increased. Every year has been better, even through COVID,” she said. “Every year, we gained more and more. Be it transactions or monetary, we were successful until last year.”
She said there is only one thing to blame — the work and the barrels out in front of her shop. It isn’t just some small losses. The cost to her business is in the thousands, she said.
“We saw about $75,000 in losses and about 10,000 in transactions compared to 2022,” she said inside the coffee shop she opened with her husband in 2014. The coffee shop also has a drive-thru, but the Prevattes said commuters aren’t willing to traverse the daunting in-and-out for some java.
Woodcock told the council he’s been involved in hundreds of such projects, and this one is the most problematic. He said the delays stem from unexpected utility locations, getting the proper permits from the South Carolina Department of Transportation and stop work orders.
The more recent change order requested $590,000 more from the county. Council denied the request for the total amount and instead agreed to give the Tennessee-based company 75%. Portland Utilities will get the remaining 25% if it completes the work by June 1. For the Prevattes, that day can’t come soon enough.
“Seventy-five thousand last year, and you know every month we are losing, and there is only so much more we can take,” she said.
