SCDOT Commission approves contract with Florence company

The S.C. Department of Transportation Commission approved a bridge replacement contract with Florence Concrete Products Inc. of Florence on Thursday, allowing 25 laid-off employees to return to their jobs.

The contract, valued at a little more than $2 millions, calls for Florence Concrete Products to provide SCDOT Maintenance units with 18 pre-stressed concrete replacement bridges that can be installed at locations in 10 counties.

Florence Concrete Products is only one of four companies in the country that produces off-site concrete bridge replacements.

Company president Sherry M. Jones said the SCDOT contract will allow the company to bring back some employees and work at full strength.

“This contract will allow us to re-hire 25 workers who had been laid off,” Jones said in a SCDOT press release. “We will now be operating with a full shift of 100 employees who will be earning paychecks and benefits.”

Florence Concrete Products will provide bridges that will be used in Abbeville, Colleton, Georgetown, Horry, Jasper, Laurens, Pickens, Spartanburg, Union and York counties.  that this contract is a perfect scenario. 

“We have an ideal situation anytime we can award a contract to a company in our state that will improve our roads and bridges, and provide jobs for South Carolinians at the same time. This is a complete win,” Transportation Secretary H.B. “Buck” Limehouse Jr. said in the release.