South Carolina roads chief Christy Hall retires with praise for billions in highway improvements

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s well-respected transportation leader Christy Hall is retiring after spending the past decade overseeing billions of dollars in highway spending after the state raised its gas tax to fix its roads.

Hall’s retirement announcement as secretary of the South Carolina Department of Transportation was met with praise across the spectrum.

She took one of the most political jobs in state government — who gets new highways, more lanes and better roads — and made it equitable and based on needs, while also convincing those in power that was the best way to operate.

Hall is a “unicorn among state agency heads,” unique in her ability to tell people how it is instead of what they want to hear, but also in earning trust that she’ll do everything she can to solve problems, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Larry Grooms said Thursday.

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“We now have objective criteria by which we measure projects. We know what we are going to do and how much it is going to cost before we do it,” said the Republican from Bonneau. “She took out the guesswork.”

In 2015, Hall took over an agency that had three directors in two years. The department’s finances were so bad that contractors weren’t sure they would get paid.

South Carolina roads were in such bad shape that factories were threatening to stop expanding unless the gas tax was raised. But the poor management of DOT was an argument against giving them any more money.

Hall came to work for the road agency fresh out of civil engineering school at Clemson University in the mid-1990s. She rose through the ranks of the agency.

As director, she earned the trust of lawmakers, who said they were impressed with her ability to get as much money as she could from other places to supplement cash from the 12-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase.

A dozen projects expanding interstates or upgrading old interchanges at major crossroads are currently under construction or planned through the end of the decade across South Carolina. They include the long-sought expansion of Interstate 26 to three lanes in each direction where thousands of trucks from the port head from Charleston to Columbia, and the untangling of where Interstates 20, 26 and 126 meet west of downtown Columbia.

“Christy Hall has been an unbelievable Secretary for the people of South Carolina. During her tenure, she has more than quadrupled the amount of road and bridge work happening across our state,” SCDOT Chairman Tony Cox said in a written statement.

Hall thanked the governor who suggested she get the job, Nikki Haley, and Haley’s successor, Henry McMaster. She also thanked lawmakers and the SCDOT board for allowing her to serve at a time when the state experienced “unprecedented levels of road and bridge work in every county of the state.”

Hall’s last day is March 31. The SCDOT board on Thursday chose Chief Operating Officer Justin Powell to be her successor. His appointment must be approved by the state Senate.

Hall’s skills weren’t just in construction. She got Haley’s attention with her leadership during a massive ice storm in 2014 in the Midlands. She made sure roads were quickly reopened during historic floods and hurricanes, including leading an effort to build a temporary barrier that kept floodwaters from surging over U.S. Highway 501 and cutting off Myrtle Beach after Hurricane Florence.

“Whether responding to natural disasters or spearheading transformative infrastructure projects, she has consistently delivered for the people of South Carolina,” Gov. McMaster said in a statement. “She leaves a legacy of excellence and has placed the agency in a position to continue to drive our state forward.”