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Rural Consultation Practices
South Carolina Develops Rural System Upgrade Program

Rural System Upgrade Program

The South Carolina Department of Transportation has formed a partnership with the ten regional Councils of Governments (COGs) which have representation from all 46 counties in the state. The process, known as the rural system upgrade program, is essentially the federal-aid construction program for nonmetropolitan areas.

The rural planning process is used to identify and prioritize the highway needs for the state. It involves input at the local level from public officials and the general public to identify the local interests, and the evaluation of the projects on the basis of travel needs and economic development opportunities.

Specifically, the planning process is initiated by the SCDOT Planning Office by preparing a list of potential highway construction needs that have been identified based on travel, congestion and accidents for each COG region. The COGs use this list as the basis for discussions with the local elected officials, economic development groups and members of the legislative delegation in their region. Through these meetings, additional construction projects are typically identified.

The second step in the process is for the SCDOT Planning Office to provide the statistical data to aid in evaluating travel related criteria for all projects, both SCDOT and locally identified. The staff of the COG also prepare information and data using their Geographic Information System data base to aid in evaluating other criteria pertinent to the projects.

The COG then appoints a committee to review the list of projects and the data pertaining to each. The committee rates and ranks the projects using a rural project ranking formula. The project priorities are recommended to the COG board for concurrence. (Rural project ranking formula is attached.)

The COG board reviews the recommended priorities and adopt the prioritized list of projects. This prioritized list becomes a recommendation to the SCDOT Transportation Commission.

The project lists from all ten COGs are used to develop a draft State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) to be presented to the SCDOT Transportation Commission. After the commission gives tentative approval to the STIP, the STIP is distributed back to the COGs for the public review period. Following the public review period and the receipt of comments, the commission adopts the STIP and forwards it to the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration for their approval.


Rural Projects Ranking Formula

Required Criteria Score Range Score Volume/Capacity Ratio (current) >1.99 1.99-1.5 1.49-1.0 <1.0 20 12 4 0 _________ Volume/Capacity Ratio (future) >1.99 1.99-1.5 1.49-1.0 <1.0 10 6 2 0 _________ Accident Rate >15 11-15 6-10 0-5 10 6 2 0 _________ Average Daily Traffic per Lane Mile (thousands) >1000 750-1000 500-749.99 250-499.99 < 250 10 8 6 2 0 _________ Proximity to Existing Infrastructure to Any Portion of the Project Directly Accessible < 1 mile 1-5 miles > 5 miles 10 8 6 2 0 _________ Benefits to Existing Employment and Potential Employment Growth Significant Moderate Low 5 3 1 _________ Provides Corridor Enhancement Rural Principal Arterial Rural Minor Arterial Rural Major Collector 5 3 1 _________ Special Considerations such as but not limited to: Completes Final Portion of a Facility Serves Major Intermodal Facility Eliminates a Severe Safety Problem Environmental/Social Impact Emergency or Evacuation Route Access to Quality of Life Assets Others Max. 15 _________

Discretionary Criteria (may be combined with Special
Considerations above for a total of 30 points maximum)

Required Criteria Score Range Score Tourism Benefit/Impact Significant Moderate Low 5 3 1 _________ Provides Direct Access to Interstate (distance) < 1 mile 1-5 miles 5-10 miles > 10 miles 5 3 1 0 _________ Provides Access to Market Area Connects Two or More MSAs Connects MSAs to non-MSA Connects Two or More non-MSAs 5 3 1 _________ Total Score   _________

Rural Projects Ranking Formula Definitions and Instructions

Volume/Capacity Ratio (current) — The ratio of the most recently available average daily traffic volume on a segment of highway relative to the design capacity of that highway. A ratio of one (1) indicates that the current volume of traffic is equal to the capacity of the highway to safely handle that amount of traffic. This is used to measure congestion. The calculations will be provided by the SCDOT staff.

Volume/Capacity Ratio (future) – The ratio of the year 2015 average daily traffic volume on a segment of highway relative to the current design capacity of that highway. The 2015 projections and calculations will be provided by the SCDOT staff.

Accident Rate – The annual number of accidents that occur along a segment of road per million miles of travel along the same segment of roadway. The travel is measured by the annual number of vehicles passing over that segment of road times the length of the segment. This is used to measure safety. The calculations will be provided by the SCDOT staff.

Average Daily Traffic per Lane Mile – Average daily traffic is the traffic volume that passes a point in both directions in a 24 hour period on an average day of the year. A lane mile is the number of lanes of the roadway at the point the traffic is counted. A one mile section of 2-lane road is two lane miles. This is used to measure travel. The calculations will be provided by the SCDOT staff.

Proximity to Existing Infrastructure to any Portion of the Project – This criteria is a measure of how well the project will promote economic development. The three necessary components for economic development are water, sewer, and transportation. If water and/or sewer are available along any segment of the highway project, the project would receive the highest score. The location of water and sewer and the distance will be evaluated by the COG staff.

Benefit to Existing Employment and Potential Employment Growth – This criteria is a subjective evaluation of the benefit the project would have by improving access to existing manufacturing, commercial or service industries and the access to identified future sites for these activities. This will be evaluated by the COG committee.

Provides Corridor Enhancement – This criteria is used to give priority to the highways that serve interregional persons and goods movements. These roadways are identified by a functional classification system defined by the Federal Highway Administration and recognized for the type of trip purpose served. A map showing the functional classification will be provided to the COGs by the SCDOT. The COG staff will evaluate this criteria.

Special Considerations – The purpose of this criteria is to provide a maximum of 15 points to be subjectively applied to the project for any special circumstances. The items shown on the ranking formula are suggestive only. This criteria will be evaluated by the COG committee.

Tourism Benefit/Impact – This criteria is a subjective evaluation of the benefit the project would have to improving access to tourist facilities in the region or to income derived from tourists passing through the region. This will be evaluated by the COG committee.

Provides Direct Access to Interstate – This criteria is used to improve access to the interstate system for economic development. The better sites for development are the ones that are closer to the interstate: therefore, projects serving these sites receive the higher scores. This will be measured by the COG staff.

Provides Access to Market Area – This criteria is used to gauge access to major economic market areas. To determine a "major market area" it was decided to use the Census definition for Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) which are counties that include at least one city with over 50,000 population. This will be evaluated by the COG staff.


February 1999

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For More Information on the South Carolina Process Contact:
Ronald Althoff, Assistant Director of Planning
South Carolina Department of Transportation
955 Park Street, PO Box 191, Columbia, SC 29202
(803) 737-1444;   Fax (803) 737-1858



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