COLUMBIA, S.C. — If you’ve been driving down Garners Ferry onto Millwood Avenue, you might have noticed some bumps on the road. South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) is working to re-pave the roads.
“There are areas that are not paved, and then there are areas that are paved, and when you're going from one area to the other, it feels like something is breaking in the car, so I'm always worried about that,” said one driver.
Edmond Melkomian said he often drives through the road construction near Millwood Avenue, leaving him with one major question.
“It’s been going on for a couple of weeks now; when are they going to be done with it?” he said.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation began work to re-pave the roads near the Millwood Avenue corridor this spring, but the project as a whole began in the summer of 2023. It includes adding bike lines in the area.
In a statement to News19, the SCDOT said the road work is “wrapping up and should be done in the next month."
"After that, crews will able to put in permanent pavement markings," the agency said. "We anticipate that this will be done by summer.”
Warren Varnadore is a service advisor at Golden Motors, a used car dealership in Columbia.
“A road condition and tire road hazard situation pops up often," he said. "Roads are hard to maintain. We all can understand that we drove on them every day. Tires are the only thing that we can control for our safety in the sense of road hazard situations.”
Varnadore said grooved roads can cause issues for drivers.
"It definitely doesn’t help tread wear on your tire," he said. "It's just a rough road surface. So, imagine all the friction building up between a rough road surface being a pothole or just a grooved road. It's going to create premature tire wear, so it's even more important to rotate [and] make sure they're inflated properly. Just monitor your tires.”
If you damage your tire, auto shops recommend getting it checked immediately.
“You want to get it repaired as soon as humanly possible and at least advised on because what happens is it causes premature failure to additional components," Varnador said. "A simple repair bill may turn into something major if it's put off.”
If you damaged your car on a road managed by the state, you might be eligible to file a claim. You can check eligibility for a claim here.