News

Sea Island Parkway on the road to completion

September 25, 2007

After widening the most clogged stretch of U.S. 21 on St. Helena Island to three lanes last month to relieve left-turn backups, workers are about to pour 2 miles of oyster shell concrete sidewalks bordering the rest of the soon-to-be widened highway.

The 3.3-mile project to add a center lane, sidewalks and traffic signals to the increasingly busy road is more than half done, and is expected to end in late spring of next year.

"If hurricane season continues to behave, then I reckon this project is going to continue right on schedule," said Earl Capps, a spokesman for U.S. Group, the project's contractor.U.S. Group is working on the $13 million widening project from the Chowan Creek bridge to Tomm Fripp Road.

After opening up the former bottleneck between Polowana Road and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive with an extra lane, the company plans to install stop lights at both intersections to slow traffic, a point island residents and environmental advocacy group the Coastal Conservation League pushed for early in the design process.

Community clamoring reshaped the state Department of Transportation's improvement plans, much as it did to change designs for U.S. 17 from Gardens Corner to Colleton County, in order to save trees, protect marshes and create pedestrian and bike paths.

Construction also largely has been limited to night time.

The contractor finished installing five roadside filters to keep pollutants from streaming into surrounding marshes, said its assistant resident construction engineer Ralph Cooke.

And road reallignments have saved 148 trees, including the so-called Emancipation Oak -- said to be a site of the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation -- more than half the total blocking the original right of way, said Coastal Conservation League project manager Reed Armstrong.

Sidewalks will flank about a third of the road, including the U.S. Post Office and St. Helena Elementary School, and 5-foot bike paths will run the entire length, said Cooke.

Christena Porter, principal of St. Helena Elementary's Early Learning Center, said road work hasn't hindered attendance or buses.

While the sidewalks will be welcome, Porter has asked the Transportation Department to put in flashing school zone lights as well.

"I always think it's a good idea when you have a school and children to have a sign letting everyone know to slow down," she said.

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