Lexington County looks to end upkeep of little-used roads

Lexington County is looking at giving up care of 18 lightly traveled roads, many of them in the Chapin area.

County Council members are considering the move after public works director Wrenn Barrett described the roads as mostly short, narrow lanes with no more than two homes on them.

The roads appear to be “quasi-private driveways,” Councilman Kent Collins of Lexington said.

Overall, 19 homes are on the roads, with none on half of the routes, officials said. A few are entrances into hunting clubs, businesses and a church.

One road that county officials no longer want is a 1.1-mile route near Pelion named for Delano Kneece.

The road is used mainly by vehicles from his farm, Kneece said.

“We’ve already been taking care of it,” Kneece said, adding he will abide by “whatever they want to do.”

All landowners along the routes must agree to the change before it can be adopted.

“If we get back objections, we won’t pursue it,” said Joe Montgomery, special projects manager for county roads.

The 6.8 miles in the package slated for elimination total 1 percent of the 653 miles of unpaved roads for which the county is responsible for maintenance.

The change would turn over the roads to landowners for upkeep and allow each to be closed to public use.

There have been few requests to fix potholes and for other repairs on each road, Barrett said.

Requests to abandon responsibility for other little-used roads may follow after further analysis of traffic and upkeep on other routes, he said.

“We have roads in our system that should not be in,” Barrett told council members.

None of the roads proposed for elimination are on the backlog of requests for paving that total 300 miles, officials said.

Giving up oversight of the roads will become final after court approval.

The miles of dirt roads in Lexington County still outnumber the stretches of paved ones.

Paved roads now totaling 565 miles will surpass those that are unpaved no later than 2022, Barrett predicted.

That change largely stems from continued growth as new neighborhoods with paved streets are developed, he told council members.