On December 5, 2008, Dennis Corporation attended the Opening Ceremony of Camp Welfare Road. Dennis Corporation managed the construction of three miles of newly paved road for the Camp Welfare Road Improvement Project. When Dennis Corporation took on the project, the road and bridges were in extremely poor condition. Due to the emergency bridge closure by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) for safety reasons, Carolina Adventure World, a newly established family recreational park, was rendered inaccessible to the public. This endangered the growing business and the potential revenue it could bring to surrounding businesses in Fairfield County. Fortunately, due to the perseverance of Fairfield County Council, the County Transportation Committee, Dennis Corporation and SCDOT, the bridges and road projects were progressed to an accelerated bid and completion schedule.

Fairfield County knew it had to begin work immediately to fix the continued disruption of local residents’ vehicular access and before sales losses resulted in the demise of Carolina Adventure World, but projects of this nature often take years to complete. Senator Linda H. Short and Representative Creighton B. Coleman lobbied to remedy the situation in a manner to address the immediacy of the issue, while not compromising the quality of construction. SCDOT was able to build a new bridge and perform maintenance work on a second bridge, with both projects complete within two months and at half the estimated cost of $12,000.

Dennis Corporation acquired the services of Site-Prep Inc. of N.C., who were able to provide a new, wider, completely reconstructed, safer and more sufficient roadway in a record time of 36 days. The Camp Welfare Road project widened the existing roadway from 20’ to 24’, correcting grade deficiencies and the old road profile using the Full Depth Reclamation process with cement. The process was completed utilizing recycled in-situ materials, Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) & Base, with only minimal amounts of virgin material required.  Additionally, this project, through a Value Engineering proposal, served as a pilot project for an environmentally friendly warm-mix asphalt technology for the SCDOT. The warm mix overlay, produced and placed by Boggs Paving Inc., of Monroe N.C., was comprised of nearly 40% RAP and was produced at significantly lower temperatures generating lower material cost and emission output at the plant and at the project site.

This project represented the first time SCDOT had utilized both of these innovative recycling processes in tandem on the same project. Based on the project’s success in terms of quality, timeliness and savings, both economically and environmentally, it will not be the last.

Dennis Corporation is a South Carolina licensed civil engineering, surveying and construction management firm. Dennis Corporation’s specific fields of expertise include civil infrastructure engineering, construction management, construction services, expert witness, intelligent transportation systems, program management, special projects, surveying, traffic engineering and transportation engineering.