A $40 million project to refurbish all 119 miles of paved roads at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is on pace for completion by fiscal 2023, with work on the last of three major roads expected to wrap up by 2020.
In an update on the project last week, Thomas Johnson, the Department of Energy’s assistant deputy director for the 310-square-mile site, said many of the roads on site have not been updated in more than 20 years. The work involves removing a layer of deteriorating asphalt and then repaving on a sturdy foundation.
About $10 million has been spent since the project began last year, Johnson said. That money has fully addressed two of the site’s main roads, and has been used to start work on Road C, the third main road. Road C leads to key areas including H Canyon, the SRS nuclear materials processing facility; the site’s training facility; and the tank farms, which house about 35 million gallons of Cold war-era, radioactive liquid waste.
Savannah River Site spokesman Monte Volk said by email Wednesday that the culvert for Road C is now being replaced by Savannah River Site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). Once that is done, road resurfacing and striping can be completed. Work on Road C should wrap up by fiscal 2020.
The road infrastructure project also includes Road 2, which encompasses parking lots for the SRS badge office and the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). Road 2 was resurfaced and striped in fiscal 2017.
The same work was conducted in fiscal 2018 on Road F, which passes by a portion of the tank farms, as well as the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) and the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF).
Many of these roads have not been updated since the 1990s, Volk said: “As with any infrastructure, maintenance, repairs and upgrades are required to keep it in a safe, operating condition.”
Once work on Road C is completed, other minor road repairs will push the project to fiscal 2023. Site traffic is being controlled by using detour routes and traffic shifts during major work phases.
