JOHNS ISLAND — Charleston County’s plan for improving traffic along Bohicket and Main roads has proved so unpopular with residents that the county will rework the idea and potentially scale it down.
A county review of 430 public comments that followed an open house earlier this year found that just 23 percent supported the county’s preferred road plan, 41 percent opposed it, and the rest wanted changes.
Hundreds of people said they wanted road work and a proposed bike/pedestrian path to stop at Plow Ground Road, rather than continuing down Bohicket Road toward Kiawah Island. Their county councilman agreed.
“I’ve been a vocal opponent of going beyond Plow Ground Road with any widening,” said Councilman Joe Boykin at an evening meeting Sept. 5. He suggested the county take another look and see if intersection improvements and turn lanes could be used to improve traffic without so much disruption.
Council member Jenny Honeycutt was also concerned by the public response.
“Really, with only 23 percent support of a project, outright, I struggle as a representative of these communities to move forward with something folks really don’t want,” she said. “As hard as we have worked on this.”
Alex Owsiak, a capital programs manager in the county’s Public Works Department who presented the details to County Council, said the staff would do more analysis and see if “shrinking these improvements” would still provide adequate traffic relief.
“I think it’s premature to approve the project as currently designed,” Owsiak agreed.
The project officially called Main Road Corridor Segment C is part of a large “project of regional significance” that was included in the county’s 2016 transportation sales tax referendum. Segment C is one portion of a road that has three names and runs from West Ashley nearly to Kiawah Island.
At one end of Main Road, where it meets U.S. Highway 17 across the Stono River in West Ashley, the county has approved a $354 million plan to remake the intersection with flyovers and road widening.
From there, two-lane Main Road comes on to Johns Island, changes its name to Bohicket Road when it hits Maybank Highway, then continues to become Betsy Kerrison Parkway near the entrances to Kiawah and Seabrook islands.
It’s that section of road, mostly between Maybank Highway and Kiawah, where the county’s plan called for adding lanes on the busiest parts, creating three roundabouts at intersections, requiring land from dozens of residential and business properties, and removing 67 grand live oak trees.
The cost estimate for the proposed work was between $75 million and $90 million.
It’s not the first time area residents have sought Charleston County traffic improvements, only to be displeased with the proposed solutions. Others include:
On Johns Island the “Segment C” plan included one particularly controversial concept, a planned 12-foot pedestrian and bicycle path that would run for about nine miles along the river side of the road. That would require land from dozens of property owners and create a path that would cross many driveways; some residents wondered if the path would get much use.
Boykin, who lives on Johns Island, vowed in May to “fight to my last breath to kill that path.”
Residential development on the island has been increasing rapidly, along with the population, and that’s strained the network of mostly two-lane roads. From 2010 to 2021 the number of people living on Johns Island increased by about 7,800 — a more than 50 percent jump.
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