COLUMBIA, S.C. — 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

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