By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published March 2, 2010

Road improvements needed to keep existing and future traffic moving smoothly in the area surrounding the Charleston International Airport and the Boeing Co.’s new 787 assembly facility will cost $155 million, a consultant’s report says.

But where that money will come from, no one is quite sure.

Charleston County Council has asked its staff to look for possible funding sources and to make recommendations in the coming weeks, said Teddie Pryor, council chairman.

Pryor said the county hopes to find $5 million of the total cost soon to proceed with relatively small improvements to seven existing intersections, such as additional left and right turn lanes.

“We want to get that done right now,” Pryor said.

Those intersection improvements are recommended in the study by engineering firms Davis & Floyd and Stantec. The study also calls for upgrades on a much larger scale totaling $150 million.

Charleston County commissioned the traffic study in November, just after learning that Boeing’s new assembly facility would be built in North Charleston and would mean nearly 4,000 new employees commuting in the area in addition to the 3,000 already at the company’s local facilities.

Another consideration was Boeing’s plan to build its new facility on top of a portion of what is now South Aviation Boulevard.

The study was funded with a $150,000 grant to Charleston County from the state of South Carolina.

A focus of the study recommendations is removing commuter trips from roads that are meant to serve the airport, said Rhett Reidenbach, project manager for Davis & Floyd.

The study’s more extensive recommendations call for overhauling Interstate 526 interchanges at International Boulevard and West Montague Avenue and building a new four-lane Dorchester Road “cut-through” road. Those changes would cost $100 million.

The study also calls for major improvements to South Aviation Boulevard and Ashley Phosphate Road that total another $50 million.

Recommendations in the study are based on what engineers call the “level of service” that an intersection provides. Based on traffic projections, many of the 30 intersections in the traffic study area will be failing by 2020. Some already are.

The road upgrades recommended in the study would help improve the level of service at some intersections, Reidenbach said.

Reidenbach presented the study today at a special board meeting of the Charleston County Aviation Authority.

At the meeting, Airports Director Sue Stevens said the Aviation Authority had an airport traffic study in the works to address road challenges before Boeing announced plans to build a massive new facility in the area.

Following the announcement, the authority saw a need to join with the county, the city of North Charleston and other stakeholders for a larger study, she said.

 

“Boeing was the tipping point,” Stevens said. “They didn’t create the problem.”

Boeing’s North Charleston 787 Dreamliner assembly facility is set to open in 2011 and reach full capacity in 2013.

Reidenbach said Boeing’s work shift schedules are timed so that the company’s existing employees are not on the road at peak commute times, which helps the road situation.

Boeing spokeswoman Candy Eslinger said the first shift of production workers arrives at work between 6 and 7 a.m. and second-shift workers arrive between 3 and 4:30 p.m. A very small third shift works from 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., she said.

Future shift schedules at the assembly facility likely will be similar to those at Boeing’s existing plants, Eslinger said. But those schedules are set based on Boeing’s work flow, not specifically to address traffic in the surrounding area.

Pryor and Charleston County Councilman Elliott Summey said the county will seek state and federal grants for the work, possibly including federal stimulus act grants.

Summmey said another source of funding for the projects could be the portion of state gasoline tax revenue that Charleston County receives each year.

Charleston County Council’s Economic Development Committee, which Summey chairs, last week voted to move forward with recommendations in the study by directing staff to seek out funding sources and begin permitting and design work for the seven intersection improvements.

The airport-area road improvement plan is not the only local road project in need of about $150 million. The city of Charleston has a plan to fix drainage problems on and around the Crosstown Expressway that would cost $146.3 million.

The city had applied for a federal stimulus grant for that amount but found out in February it would receive only $10 million.

Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.