The agency will continue to operate five days per week

The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) will have a pilot program available this summer for employees who choose to work four long days per week in an effort to reduce gas costs for the employees and reduce congestion on the highways for the public.

Transportation Secretary H.B. Limehouse Jr. said the agency will continue to operate Monday through Friday as usual, but individual employees who volunteer for the pilot program will work a four-day per-week schedule, typically from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Limehouse said, “They will be putting in longer days, but the extra day off creates a trade-off whereby some of our staff will not have the expense of commuting a fifth day each week.”

Limehouse cited other factors that benefit both SCDOT employees and the public:

·  The longer work days will allow some SCDOT employees to commute to and from work before and after peak rush hour times.

·  Fewer cars on the roads will reduce congestion, which saves fuel consumption for everyone.

·  Reduced congestion has proved to increase the safety on the highways.

·  A reduction in congested, stop-and-go traffic also reduces emissions that damage air quality, particularly during the summer months when “ozone alerts” that indicate immediate air quality problems are possible.

Limehouse noted that the summer work schedule experiment will provide those SCDOT employees who choose the four-day schedule with the opportunities to spend more quality time with their families, to take “mini-vacations” in their own communities and to spend more time volunteering in their neighborhoods and communities.

The pilot program will begin on June 16 and end on August 29. The program will not affect the current schedule already in place for SCDOT Maintenance employees. Those employees already work a summer schedule that is designed to take advantage of daylight savings time to perform work on the highways.

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