{"data":{"id":"us-sc/s.c.-code-ann.-57-3-205","jurisdiction":"us-sc","citation":"S.C. Code Ann. § 57-3-205","heading":"Public-private partnership arrangements; funding; powers; review.","body":"(A) The department may enter into public-private partnership arrangements between or among the department and any public or private entity for the purpose of planning, designing, financing, constructing, operating, or maintaining the highways, roads, streets, bridges, public transit, and work improvements or facilities incidental or related thereto under the jurisdiction of the department. The provisions of this section may be used with any other provisions of state law to accomplish one or more projects.\n(B) Public-private partnership arrangements may take the form of design-build agreements, design-build-operate agreements, design-build-operate-maintain agreements, design-build-finance-operate-maintain agreements, franchise agreements, predevelopment agreements, usage charge service agreements, direct agreements, guarantees, concession agreements, lease agreements, availability payments agreements, performance-based payments agreements, or any other form of contract approved by the department, or other similar arrangements or agreements pursuant to which the design, right of way acquisition, relocation of structures or utilities, construction, financing, management, maintenance, and operation, or any combination thereof, of a public highway, road, street, buildings and facilities owned by the department, broadband technology, bridge, public transit project and work, improvements or facilities incidental or related thereto is accomplished by the department or on behalf of the department by any public or private entities or methods. Additionally, such agreements may:\n(1) be short-term or long-term agreements, but not exceed sixty years;\n(2) authorize the establishment, adjustment, indexation, and enforcement of fares, usage charges, or other user fees, including time-of-day or dynamic pricing, consistent with policies adopted by the department, which may allow enforcement through photo monitoring, cashless charges, charge-by-mail, and charge-by-license plate. Such enforcement tools are authorized for projects under this section as well as on a choice lane facility designated under Article 9, Chapter 5, Title 57;\n(3) specify a revenue application waterfall, reserves, rate covenants, and collection and enforcement measures; and\n(4) be structured on a revenue-risk, availability-payment, or hybrid basis, including usage-based performance components.\n(C) Subject to Section 57-3-615, any contracts entered into pursuant to this section may authorize funding to be established, set, modified, adjusted, and retained by the private entity, may include fares, usage charges, or other user fees for use of the project that is the subject of the arrangement, and the department may provide enforcement and collection services for the benefit of a public-private partnership arrangement. The funding may be distributed among the participants in the project as may be provided for by contract. Multiyear payment obligations may be appropriation backed availability payments or milestone payments and may include standard non-appropriation clauses and termination-for-non-appropriation remedies with predefined compensation formulas.\n(D) The department may:\n(1) take any action to obtain federal, state, or local assistance for a qualifying project that serves the public purpose and the public-private partnership arrangements authorized by this section and may enter into any contracts required to receive such assistance;\n(2) determine that it serves the public purpose and the public-private partnership arrangements authorized by this section for all or any portion of the costs of a project to be paid, directly or indirectly, from the proceeds of a grant or loan made by federal, state, or local government or any agency or instrumentality thereof. Such assistance includes, but is not limited to, assistance under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, railroad rehabilitation and improvement financing, private activity bonds, and other federal credit or tax-exempt financing programs; and\n(3) cooperate with private partners to obtain allocations or approvals necessary for the issuance of private activity bonds and similar instruments, and may establish or incorporate, or assist in the establishment and incorporation of, a not-for-profit corporation or entity for the purpose of borrowing funds through a governmental conduit bond issuer for the benefit of a project procured by the department.\n(E) Any contract entered into pursuant to this section shall require the private partner or each of its prime contractors to provide performance and payment security to the extent deemed necessary by the department or required by the financing parties. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the penal sum or amount of such security may be less than the price of the contract involved, such as the value of the construction elements of the contract, based upon the department's determination on a project-by-project basis of what sum may be required to adequately protect the department, the State, and the contracting and subcontracting parties.\n(F) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, proposals under this section, with respect to public highway, road, bridge, building, facility, or public transit projects or work incidental or related thereto that the department determines can be more efficiently accomplished by any of the means enumerated in this section, may be evaluated and awarded by the department based on qualifications of participants or best value, or both, as evaluated by procedures of the department and taking into consideration the best interest of the State of South Carolina. Projects authorized under a predevelopment agreement may be authorized without specifying or finalizing the full or final scope of work to be performed under the procurement or predevelopment agreement. The department may utilize a two-step request for qualifications or request for proposals process with shortlisting, conduct competitive dialogue or confidential meetings with proposers, solicit and accept alternative technical concepts, and make best-value tradeoffs without mandated formulaic weights.\n(G)(1) To the extent not authorized by statutory provisions other than this section, the solicitation pursuant to subsection (B) for a given project must be submitted to the Joint Bond Review Committee for review and comment prior to advertisement of the solicitation.\n(2) The contract may include an agreement to make payments to a development entity on a multiyear basis, provided either that payment and performance obligations for succeeding fiscal periods are subject to the availability and appropriation of funds for such periods, or that specific, limited revenues are identified in a solicitation which has received review and comment by the Joint Bond Review Committee prior to the solicitation of the procurement and such revenues are payable solely from a revenue-producing project or from a special source, which source does not involve revenues from any tax.\n(3) The department may set up separate accounts, which may be with a commercial trustee, to account for any such funds and provide for the deposit and disbursement of moneys therein under the public-private partnership arrangement.\n(4) The department shall notify the Joint Bond Review Committee within thirty days of execution of the public-private partnership arrangement and shall provide the Joint Bond Review Committee an annual report within one hundred twenty days of the end of each fiscal year regarding the status of all public-private partnership arrangements outstanding.\n(H) When the department proposes to enter into a public-private partnership arrangement under this section, it shall, prior to the execution and delivery of the contract documents for the public-private partnership arrangement, file a copy of the documents in the Office of the Secretary of State. It is the duty of the Secretary of State to file and index the filing in a special book to be kept by such officer for such purpose. The Secretary of State shall be authorized to prepare and deliver certified copies of the filed documents and to deliver them to interested parties. For each certification a reasonable fee may be charged. No action shall be commenced on account of the validity of a public-private partnership arrangement after the expiration of twenty days from the date of the filing and indexing of the proposed contract documents for the public-private partnership arrangement in the Office of the Secretary of State. The period within which such actions may be commenced shall not begin to run until such records have been filed as prescribed in this section.\n(I)(1) Before entering into any public-private partnership arrangement structure, the department shall promulgate regulations governing the solicitation, evaluation, award, financing, and oversight of such projects.\n(2) Notwithstanding item (1) or any other provision of law, the department may enter into agreements with an adjoining state to administer a public-private partnership arrangement structure in the State as long as such agreement has been submitted to the Joint Bond Review Committee for review and comment prior to execution.\n(3) The department may promulgate other regulations to implement the provisions of this section.","path":["Title 57 - HIGHWAYS, BRIDGES AND FERRIES","CHAPTER 3 Department of Transportation","ARTICLE 2 General Provisions"],"source_url":"https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t57c003.php","current_through":"2026 Session of the General Assembly","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-10-25T04:27:35Z","sha256":"36ec4c630a839e967d914030727b32986e3c2fcfc9bbe454f6a0373102a38c07","source_id":"us-sc","stale":false,"prev":"us-sc/s.c.-code-ann.-57-3-200","next":"us-sc/s.c.-code-ann.-57-3-210"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}