COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The leader of South Carolina ‘s roads agency has been to so many groundbreaking ceremonies for highway projects that he has the whole routine down.

Signs were printed, fancy shovels were readied and, since it’s the middle of August, an air-conditioned spot — the welcome center in Hardeeville — was booked for Thursday’s celebration of an $825 million project on Interstate 95 to untangle another traffic mess in one of the fastest growing states in the U.S.

Justin Powell has been around for a half-dozen of these in his nearly seven years at the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

A much different road agency than a decade ago

Powell oversees an agency whose reputation and results have turned around in the past eight years. An influx of money raised the gas t

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