The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 13

HheNeiusJ Tuesday, April 7, 1987 Section it- a 1 11 rliJLiw i.y kCm nil hill I WA Lt 1 it 1U I The Newt Trip DuBortt bridge with a two-ton per axle limit collapsed when a Datsun pickup truck, with no load, drove over it, Travis said. The problem was not the pickup truck, but overweight concrete and timber trucks that had gradually weakened the bridge until it collapsed. Although tickets are given when offenders are caught, the state Highway Patrol can't be stationed at every bridge with a load limit, Travis said. Travis believes nothing will solve the problem of overweight trucks until harsher laws, with higher fines, are passed. Insurance companies are the key, he said: they probably can force truckers into compliance with load limits if they decide to increase rates in response to tickets handed out by the state.

In addition, the department has trouble with trucks that violate height restrictions. The state's height limitations are 13 feet, six inches. But in the past four months, four bridges have been hit and damaged by trucks that are taller than the limit. "We can only replace them (bridges) so fast," Travis said. Nearly as fast as a bridge is replaced or repaired, another one comes onto the list, he said.

The department is not shortening the list of bridges needing repairs or replacement appreciably, he said. In 1982, the state list of structurally deficient bridges included 1,198 bridges. In September 1986, the list totaled 1,028. The latter list includes 16 interstate bridges, 50 on U.S. routes, 49 on South Carolina routes, 421 on state secondary roads and 492 city or county-owned bridges, he said.

Any bridge that engineers estimate can handle 72,000 pounds on five axles is considered structurally adequate. Any bridge that, for any of a variety of reasons, cannot safely carry 72,000 pounds on five axles is considered structurally deficient. In addition, the state has 951 bridges that are considered functionally obsolescent, meaning they are too narrow or too low for current traffic conditions. By Jenny Munro New Capital bureau COLUMBIA State highway officials say they consider no bridge in the state unsafe, but they are concerned about the effects of financial restrictions and overweight trucks on the 1,979 bridges statewide that are considered either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The importance of bridge safety was underlined Sunday when a 200-foot span of an interstate bridge collapsed into a swollen creek in New York state, sending at least four vehicles plunging into the water.

The bridge was declared safe following rehabilitation work and an inspection two years ago, officials said. Flooding is thought to have caused the collapse. Nelson Travis, an assistant bridge engineer for South Carolina, said there is no way to predict such tragedies. Bridges in South Carolina are designed to withstand 100-year floods (floods of such magnitude that they only occur once in a century) a Fairfield County bridge collapsed last year in a 400-year flood, he said. The cost of designing a bridge to withstand such assaults is not practical, he said.

The South Carolina Department of Highways and Public Transportation inspects about 10,000 bridges in the state, ranging from interstate bridges spanning large bodies of water to small bridges on farm-to-market roads, Nelson said. Bridges 20 feet in length or more are inspected at least once every two years, he said. If the bridge is listed as structurally deficient, it is inspected once a year or more often. Bridges listed as structurally deficient can be considered safe only if drivers using the bridges obey posted load limits, he said. Department officials know those load limits frequently are not obeyed, Travis said.

"Trucks do ignore these (posted limits) constantly. That causes further damage," he said. And the eventual result can be a bridge collapse, he said. Several years ago, a Louise Alston Graves, left, and Judith Wragg Chase outside Charleston's Old Slave Mart Museum Mrs. Graves and Mrs.

Wragg say they are giving up the operation of the museum and that It may be forced to close Fate of Charleston museum, holding remnants of slave era, is up in the air availability of federal funds, has delayed a resolution of the museum's fate, those involved said. Still, talks continue with the City of Charleston, the Smithsonian Museum, the state museum and others interested in the collection. And Mrs. Graves and Mrs. Chase hope the museum will remain open at least through the summer.

Located off cobble-stoned Chalmers Street in the heart of the city's historic district, the Old Slave Mart Museum is billed as the oldest museum of black history in the country. Miriam Wilson, a white, transplanted Ohioan and daughter of an abolitionist, began her collection in 1937 in the city's last remaining slave mart. After Miss Wilson's death in 1959, the Charleston Museum rejected her estate's offer of the collection, and Mrs. Graves and Mrs. Chase took over as curators.

They later purchased the collection and building and created a tax-exempt foundation to oversee its operation. Still, it was not a good time for such a move: the civil rights struggle was warming, and a museum of slavery reminded both blacks and whites of uncomfortable truths. "In the 60s and 70s, it was a thorn in both races' sides," said Sandra Fowler, current president of the foundation's board. "It represented something they wanted to forget." As it grew, the museum added African art to the collection to trace the roots of some slave crafts. And today, it offers a 17 Chandler admitted to medical center COLUMBIA State Supreme Court Associate Justice A.

Lee Chandler has been admitted to the Duke University Medical Center for treatment of a breathing disorder, sleep apnea, according to a news release issued Monday by the State Supreme Court. Chandler is expected to take two months off for treatment and recuperation. Retired Justice C. Bruce Little-john will fill in for him. Deep hole project gets CPA says he would have advised in favor of Shelter rich resource library used by scholars around the world.

Although attitudes toward the museum may have changed, contributions haven't grown, said Mrs. Fowler, and the museum faces a financial crunch. Federal support has dwindled over the years, local support has been minor, and the volunteer contributions of Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Chase, and others have always been crucial.

"If it weren't for her, it wouldn't be there," foundation vice chairman William Saunders, who is black, said of Mrs. Chase. Mrs. Chase said she and her sister can no longer support the museum. Though still negotiating, she has not accepted an offer from the city last fall that would have given her $250,000 for the building and collection.

She said the offer is still under discussion, but she criticized Mayor Joe Riley for not acting sooner. Saunders and Mrs. Fowler said a reluctance by Mrs. Chase to relinquish control is at least partially responsible for the museum's plight. But Mrs.

Chase faulted them for failing to exercise their own authority, including replacing the two sisters as they requested. Mrs. Chase and Mrs. Graves have since broken all connections with the foundation. "Her tenacity has kept that museum See Slave, Page 8B limited partnerships which invest in residential and commercial properties.

In the apartment complex partnerships, U.S. Shelter managed the properties and investors earned a return based on performance of the complexes. In the 1981 transaction, U.S. Shelter approached 18 limited partnerships with its offer. Twelve accepted it; six declined.

On Wednesday, Brandt testified that Tuck and U.S. Shelter Vice President Millon Plyler tried to bribe him to convince his clients the merger was a good deal. Brandt said he refused the offer. The rest of Monday's court time was spent on motions and objections, which were characterized by verbal jousting between the bevy of defense attorneys and Kendall Few, who is co-representing the plaintiffs in the case, and by pleas from U.S. District Judge Falcon Hawkins, of Charleston, that both sides be conscientious about their conduct of the case.

"I can't tell whether we're getting far afield or close," Hawkins said. After Brandt spent three hours testifying about 60 documents relating to U.S. Shelter's business conduct, Hawkins questioned the value of the exercise. Speaking of Brandt, Hawkins said, "I don't even know what he does as a C.P.A. to be frank with you." Hawkins, who will decide the verdict instead of a jury, later said he was "in the dark" as to U.S.

Shelter's intent in initiating the merger deal. Trip DuBard News Charleston bureau CHARLESTON It now lies in a display case, a mammy doll with button eyes, hand-made years ago by Emmaline, a slave, for the 16-year-old child of her master. Nearby is a bill of sale for $4,700, the accepted price of "Dolly and her six children," purchased in 1863. And in between are the interview booths with pine and bare brick walls, where young black men met white strangers who then bought them by number from an auctioneer barking from the street-front balcony. After 50 years of sometimes unwelcome display, such remnants of slavery, the "peculiar institution" as it once was called, may soon be lost from their home at the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston.

Citing a lack of time and money, the two elderly white sisters who oversee the museum say they must close later this year. "We are not immortal," said Judith Wragg Chase, 80, owner and operator of the museum with her 84-year-old sister, Louise Alston Graves. But even as the gift shop endures a "Going Out of Business Sale," the future of the more than 1,400 pieces of slave and African arts, crafts and artifacts remains uncertain. Disagreement over the museum's future direction, aggravated by diminished top ranking minster. The University of South Carolina and the University of Tennessee, both DOSECC members, participated in the site selection phase, Williams said.

Funding for the site selection phase, about $1.9 million, was provided by the National Science Foundation, Williams said. If funding is secured for the deep hole project, the drilling site is expected to be somewhere in a area between Westminster and Toccoa, scientists involved with the project say. Dr. Robert Hatcher, formerly a geology department faculty member at USC, now on the faculty at the University of Tennessee, is the director of the project. According to Hatcher, the project would allow geologists to gain information about the formation of the continental crust and mountain chains.

and neck. Bush was reported missing the same day, and his body was found Monday near the motel. Lexington County Coroner Harry O. Harman said the body was found about 2 a.m. in a shallow grave in woods outside Pine Ridge.

Bush had lived with his wife in Spartanburg. Lollis lived in Honea Path in Anderson County. Metts said the events leading to the Midlands area murders apparently began when the two victims went to a topless club where Donna Torrence was a dancer. "We believe the motives to be robbery, and perhaps some vengeance back on the two indivduals for making some advancements toward Mrs. Torrence," Metts said.

The three suspects had been living near Pine Ridge, but recently had moved to Charleston, Metts said. By Randall Holcombe News Oconee Bureau WESTMINSTER A scientific project that would include the drilling of a 6-mile-deep hole in the Westminster-Toccoa, area received a boost recently when it was selected as a priority project by a scientific organization, a project supporter said Monday. The Science Advisory Committee of Direct Observation and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust (DOSECC), a non-profit corporation made up of universities, selected the Appalachian project as the one it will support above other proposed drilling projects in the nation, said University of Tennessee professor Rick Williams. The drilling of the deep hole for scientific research has been estimated to cost $45 million to $60 million over the three-year period it would take to complete. The A.

Lee Chandler hole would be the second deepest in the world. No funding has been secured to allow the project to begin, Williams said. An organization is forming now that will develop a formal funding proposal, he said. That proposal will be turned over to DOSECC, which will deliver the proposal to the federally-funded National Science Foundation, Williams said. Whether the project is carried out will depend on the level of funding the foundation receives from Congress, he said.

If the DOSECC committee had not selected the deep hole project as a number one priority, "that would have been the end of it," Williams said. The site selection phase of the project took place in 1985 and 1986. Geologists drilled four holes ranging in depth from to 1,400 feet at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains northwest of West arrested after a stakeout of his home, police said. Metts said Monday that the Charleston County murder is unrelated to the other killings, but that Michael Torrence's arrest provided a break for investigators. A few hours after Michael Torrence's arrest, authorities in Lexington County arrested Thomas and Donna Torrence.

All three have been charged with the murders of Charles Alan Bush and his coworker Dennis Lollis, Metts said. Bush and Lollis last were seen alive Feb. 11, when they were sharing a room at the Red Carpet Inn in Cayce. Both men were weaving-machine repairmen, working temporarily at the M. Lowenstein Corp.

textile mill in Olympia. Lollis body was found in his motel bed Feb. 12, and authorities said he had been stabbed more than 20 times in his head Three family members held in Lexington slayings By Chris Simmons News staff writer A certified public accountant testified Monday morning that he would have advised some of his clients to accept a merger offer from U.S. Shelter Corp. in 1981 even if the stock U.S.

Shelter offered for swap in the deal was overvalued. Testifying in the sixth day of a complicated stock swindle lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greenville, Ray Brandt said some of the apartment complexes his clients had interest in were performing so badly that he would have advised trading their interests for U.S. Shelter stock valued at $5.50 per share, even if the shares were only worth $3.50 or $4.50 each. In the 4'2-year-old lawsuit, about 120 apartment complex investors allege that U.S.

Shelter, several of its corporate officers and various other parties swindled them out of between $22 million and $37 million in actual damages and lost profits. The suit targets several members of Greenville's business elite, including N. Barton Tuck who began U.S. Shelter in Greenville in 1972. The company mushroomed from earning a quarter-million dollars in revenues in its first year to becoming one of the "largest property managers in the nation," according to U.S.

Shelter. Although U.S. Shelter has reported $139.5 million in revenues in 1985, it reported earnings of $1 .02 million. In 1986, the company reported a net loss of $7.7 million. It has traditionally earned the lion's share of its revenues from syndicating LEXINGTON (AP) Authorities in Lexington and Charleston are holding three members of one family in connection with a double murder in Lexington County in mid-February, officials said.

Thomas John Torrence, 28, his wife, Donna Michele Webb Torrence, 20, and Torrence's brother Michael Ryan Torrence, 25, were each charged Monday with two counts of murder and two counts of armed robbery in the Lexington County case, Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said. Michael Torrence, 25, also was charged Sunday with murder in a case involving a Columbia woman whose body was found near the Mark Clark Expressway near Charleston last week. Michael Torrence is accused of killing Cynthia M. Williams, 20, Charleston County police offiders said Sunday. He was J3.