Latest models suggest freeway project will help and hurt
Although opponents of the Mark Clark Expressway hoped Charleston County
Council members would look at the latest traffic projections and decide to
nix the extension, the traffic models didn't yield their ideal response
Tuesday.
At a special Finance Committee meeting, council members saw scenarios
showing traffic impacts with or without the $420 million project in 2030.
In making their presentations, Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of
Governments Executive Director Ron Mitchum and COG planner Dan Hatley were
careful not to say definitively whether the computer-generated traffic maps
done by the the council show the Mark Clark should be completed.
And it appeared that council members drew mixed interpretations from the
models.
The COG models take into account major county road projects funded by
half-percent sales tax money and additional population growth forecast by a
previous study. They do not, however, project future population, but just
project future traffic volume on roads.
"We're not going to answer with this model, 'If you build it, will they
come?' We can answer, 'If you build it, will they drive on it?' Hatley said.
The models suggest traffic conditions will improve in several areas,
including on Main Road on Johns Island, from Maybank Highway to Folly Road,
along Bees Ferry Road to Ashley River Road and on part of Glenn McConnell
Parkway. Smaller segments in West Ashley, on James Island and in downtown
Charleston also appear to benefit from the Mark Clark.
Still, it appears a section of Maybank Highway between Bohicket Road and
River Road on Johns Island worsens, and a stretch at Maybank Highway down
River Road also deteriorates substantially.
Councilman Curtis Inabinett said he was concerned about additional
congestion on Main Road and Maybank Highway because "those are the two basic
routes we presently have to get off of Johns Island."
Hatley said traffic will likely increase "quite a bit" on Maybank Highway
with or without the Mark Clark.
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