The City of Aiken nor the S.C. Department of Transportation have no current plans to cover the deep ditches that line portions of Whiskey Road, but some Aiken residents say they see those ditches as a potential safety issue.
The ditches have both an aesthetic and safety problem, said resident Holly Ware Kirkland. "We have had people killed driving into those ditches," and the ditches would "look better" if they were filled in, said Kirkland.
Resident Taylor Wolf also stated aesthetics and safety were a problem, and said she's seen "many cars over the years being pulled from the ditches."
Interim City Manager Roger LeDuc said the ditch situation started about five to six years ago.
"At that time, the state talked to the City about putting sidewalks in there and even gave the City ... some public works projects money (for local improvements), which could be used by cities and counties," LeDuc said. "They gave us half a million dollars, I think, to be used or to be set aside in S.C. Department of Transportation money, and we were going to go and fill the ditch, use the current pipe and cover it over from Centennial Drive to Pine Log Road."
But when the City approached SCDOT, the department said the City would need more than dirt and pipe to cover those ditches, LeDuc said.
"They said we would need a pond for water, and the pipes weren't the proper size, so the project went from half a million dollars to a multimillion dollar project," LeDuc said. "It was estimated the cost would be over $5 million, and we said, 'OK, obviously this is not the scope we had originally intended.'"
Jeff Terry, the resident maintenance engineer with SCDOT, said at this time SCDOT has not had any conversations on the local level about the ditches.
"Part of the problem with that area is the hydrology of it - it's just flat," Terry said. "There is a lot of water that has to be handled in that area, and while the open ditches can handle it for now, if they started to pipe, it could restrict the water's flow. ... Also, there's a gas main under most of the ditches, so if something did come up, the lines would have to be relocated."
LeDuc said the City will have to wait until the next round of Capital Project Sales Tax to pull funding to cover the ditches. The next round won't be voted on until 2018.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard.