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Charleston County cites road repair progress under sales tax funding
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Driving on some Charleston County roads has become easier. Since March, the county’s RoadWise program has completed 15 road improvement projects.
These initial “Quickstart” projects, funded through the county’s half-cent sales tax, were completed under budget for $1.1 million—$400,000 shy of the $1.5 million allotted for the road repairs.
The leftover dollars will be put toward two new road repair projects: Creekwood Road near Edisto Island and the Kirk Avenue-West Broad intersection near Ladson.
RoadWise was developed to manage transportation-related improvements funded by the half-cent sales tax.
The $400,000 savings RoadWise accomplished on its completed road projects resulted from good management and teamwork, according to Dan Moses, RoadWise’s preconstruction director, who praised Mount Pleasant-based Colony Construction Co. for its work.
Roadwork for the 15 projects involved grading and paving dirt roads in unincorporated Mount Pleasant, St. James-Santee Parish, West Ashley, the St. Paul’s area, Ravenel and Johns Island. These projects have been completed except for a few minor improvements.
“Most of the roads in this year’s paving list have been on Charleston County’s wish list for many years,” said Moses.
“The local road projects offer an opportunity to address basic transportation needs within our county,” he added.
The projects also offer work for minority- and women-owned businesses, a key component of the RoadWise program. These businesses, known as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, received 18% of the road-improvement assignments for the recently completed projects. Additional projects are expected to raise DBE participation to 20%.
Major projects
One of the larger transportation projects to be funded by the half-cent sales tax is the extension of the Mark Clark Expressway to James and Johns islands.
Last November, Charleston County Council directed the county’s greenbelt consultant, Greenways Inc. of Durham, N.C., to assess any impacts the Mark Clark’s completion would have on those communities. Greenways subcontracted with Atlanta-based EDAW Inc. to conduct the community impact assessment and was scheduled to present its findings to the Charleston County Greenbelt and Transportation Advisory Boards on Aug. 17, after the Business Journal went to press.
Other key RoadWise projects, some of which are in the design stage, include improving the Folly Road-Maybank Highway intersection on James Island, improving the connection between U.S. highways 17 and 61 in West Ashley, widening Palmetto Commerce Parkway in Ladson, improving Johnnie Dodds Boulevard in Mount Pleasant and creating a traffic circle at Bees Ferry Road and Glenn McConnell Parkway in West Ashley.
Charleston County voters approved the sales tax during a November 2004 referendum. Collection of the tax began in May 2005. The tax is expected to raise $1.3 billion over the next 25 years to improve roads, bridges and mass transit and to develop and improve parks and green spaces. It is expected that the county will collect the money before the end of that 25-year period.
Of the $1.3 billion, improvements to Charleston County roads, bridges and highways would get 83%, or $1.08 billion. Of that amount, the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority, the Lowcountry’s mass transit system, would get no more than 18%.
The 17% of the tax not allocated to road work and CARTA, totaling about $221.5 million, would be used to create parks, build new recreational facilities and improve existing ones and preserve green spaces.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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