Tag: Federal Highway Administration

Coast RTA Select Committee Findings

As the Select Committee on Coast RTA considers its findings to report to Horry County Council, several items from the reams of information collected by the committee stand out.

While Coast RTA General Manager Myers Rollins told the committee several times that the project was “contaminated from the beginning” because SCDOT administered the project grant under the wrong set of federal guidelines, this mistake alone did not cause the project to fail.

Had Coast RTA completed the shelter project by the end of the second contract extension, this SCDOT mistake would have probably gone unnoticed. Coast RTA submitted and was paid on 13 invoices from 2007 through 2010 even though the wrong guidelines were being used.

Coast RTA Special Committee Second Meeting

The second meeting of the Special Committee on Coast RTA confirmed there is fault to be shared among several agencies when investigating why the bus sign and shelter project was not completed.

When Coast RTA received a $1 million grant through the Waccamaw Council of Governments, the Federal Highway Administration provided the funds. However, SCDOT administered the grant as if the funds came from the Federal Transportation Administration. FHWA and FTA have different requirements for how grant funds are administered.

Despite submitting 13 invoices for reimbursement from the FHWA, through the first few years of the project, SCDOT continued to administer by FTA regulations.