County’s latest I-526 plan suggests little impact to West Ashley
by Bill Davis | News Editor
Charleston County and the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) released their latest plan for the completion of the Interstate 526 interchange, with little changes and a growing price tag.
Even though the completion project was originally pitched as a regional benefit, West Ashley seems to be the least positively impacted. At least compared to James and Johns islands.
Officials say work could start as early as 2024 and take six years to complete the nine miles of raised roadway for $772 million.
The West Ashley footprint is unchanged from its current ending spot, and would necessitate the taking of only one West Ashley residence and three businesses near where it intersects with Savannah Highway.
Most of the roadway and impact from enduring traffic noise, as well as most of the projected reduction in commute times, will occur on the islands.
While there would be a drop in commute times to the airport and other spots from West Ashley, the clogging along our main traffic artery appears to be unchanged by the completed project.
According to a 2015 Charleston Area Traffic Study report, traffic is snarled along Savannah Highway from Main Road up to where it intersects with the current ending spot of 526. From that intersection to the peninsula is better, but not much better.
According to the study, after the 526 project is completed, the traffic would be roughly similar by 2050.
So, does that mean West Ashley will have to pay dearly in taxes for a project that delivers little to its commute times? Not exactly.
Consider that, according to the same study, the number of housing units in the county is expected to increase by 111-percent by 2050. That could mean Savannah Highway’s traffic wouldn’t worsen despite having twice as many cars in the county.
To some, that is a net win. And with a new interchange slated for Main Road and Savannah Highway, it might improve.
Richard Turner, deputy director of Charleston County’s Public Works and the county’s lead on the completion project, admits that the benefits in the West Ashley area “don’t appear as particularly significant.”
But, he says, the “regional mobility is where [West Ashely residents] will see the greatest improvement.”
As an example, Turner points out that the “Savannah Highway to Wesley Drive to Folly Road” route is the only way to connect West Ashley with James Island and of the few to Johns Island.
“By introducing an additional route, it provides relief and better ‘distribution’ of those trips by providing people with more route options,” says Turner.
Additionally, the new plan does include a bike-ped lane, protected from traffic by a wall like it’s done on the Ravenel Bridge over the Cooper River.
Katie Zimmerman lives in West Ashley and heads up the local bike-ped watchdog Charleston Moves, and finds good and bad here.
She’s pleased that no county road project goes forward these days without inclusion of bike-ped issues, but says the path is too narrow for both walkers and bikers and it doesn’t completely knit together the local walking-riding network.
“I still have more questions than answers,” says Zimmerman.
While it wouldn’t completely connect all the bike lanes and bridges in the area, it would be a more robust bike-ped system once paired with a bike-ped bridge in the planning stages that would cross the Ashley River.
So, West Ashleyians would get more choices in getting around. But what about the nearly $800 million price tag?
The number is not exact, as both the state and county used 2019 numbers to drive their estimate. Anyone who has tried to purchase a sheet of plywood in the past year or has read about the local construction market knows that prices have gone up substantially since 2019.
Furthermore, there is an 11-year span between the 2019 numbers and the 2030 completion date, plenty of time for further delays, inflation, cost overruns, and change orders.
So how close, or far above, the $1 billion mark does that push this project? When asked, the county and state said they would do a more intensive pricing estimate in winter of next year.
In short, no one knows for sure how much it will cost, not surprising considering the complexity of not only the project — it’s basically a linear bridge running about 18 feet in the air on land and 60 feet up crossing water — and the market.
Turner says that the county will reach out to the federal government, with a new $1 trillion infrastructure bill passing the Senate and the House taking it up later this month.
Additionally, county officials say they can use the half-cent sales tax fund to pay for the roadway’s cost above what the state is committed to, which is roughly $400 million.
Another question will be is if the new parkway, with downgraded speeds over Johns and James islands, will be fast enough and big enough by the date it’s completed. Already the state is looking at expanding the existing four-lane Mark Clark Expressway.
Officials say that redoing the new stretch, because so much of it will literally be up in the air, would require “significant reconstruction.” More dollars.
Jason Crowley is the lead critic of the project at the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, the region’s most powerful environmental watchdog that has stopped many an expensive public project in the Lowcountry.
Crowley says that the latest plan being the same plan as the one from a decade ago is proof of what a bad idea it is, that little-to-no thinking or vision has gone into creating responsible solutions to the county’s traffic woes, and that alternative solutions like express busing or commuter rail was not included.
Crowley says that what was hailed as a $400-million gift from the state, because of government delays, has resulted in an ever-growing price tag for locals, with limited benefits for West Ashley.
To be clear, Crowley is not a fan of the completion project, where former County Councilman Vic Rawl is a fan.
Rawl, whose district on Council included a chunk of West Ashley, picked up the fumbled project when he was in office, which led the state to a renewed commitment to it.
Rawl is not a fan of what he sees as the SCCCL’s role in slowing the project. He says the venerable league has the same three complaints for any roads project: it costs too much, everything has an environmental problem, bikes and walking weren’t considered enough.
“Well, it’s going to cost even more in the future, so more delay means more cost,” Rawl intones. “Second, if I paved my driveway, I’m affecting water runoff, but I still need a driveway.”
Thirdly, Rawl paints the league’s argument that presenting interconnectivity and bigger sidewalks as a panacea is a “false dialogue … do they really think people are going to walk and ride their bikes from here to North Charleston?”
Frank Wells is not nearly as worked up as Rawl, even though his business is one of the three slated for condemnation in West Ashley.
In January of last year, Wells opened Holy City Med, an urgent and primary medical clinic in a former golf shop next to 526’s southern on-ramp on Savannah Highway.
Wells spent “somewhere in the neighborhood of a half-million” to tear down the golf shop interior and build it back into a medical clinic. Between that clinic and one off N. Rhett Boulevard in North Charleston, Wells employs 28 locals, doctors, nurses.
While neither the state nor the county have reached out to Wells, his real estate professional has told him they were interested. But he was told they would do their best to “make us whole” if the property was swallowed by the project.
If that included a spot equally convenient to the Mark Clark and Savannah Highway, with good points of access, Wells would be fine with it, he says.
The county’s Turner and his analog with the SCDOT want to make sure that everyone’s view is considered in the project. As such, they will be hosting an ongoing online public meeting on the project’s website, www.scdotmarkclark.com.
Additionally, there will be a live, day-long meeting Tuesday, Sept. 14 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Essex Village Church of Christ at 763 Savage Road, with a full public hearing beginning to follow with opportunities for the public to voice concerns and complaints.
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