sentences:  The South Carolina Department of Transportation is still familiarly known as the Highway Department, which is what the agency was called until May 13, 1977 when an act of the South Carolina General Assembly reformed the agency as the Department of Highways and Public Transportation (SCDHPT).The current name, the Department of Transportation, was established in the State Government Restructuring Act of 1993.This act split functions of the SCDHPT to establish the SCDOT and the Department of Public Safety.