Council to study option of widening a pair of scenic 2-lane roads instead of building new road across island
The controversial idea of widening scenic Bohicket and Main roads was offered as a possible alternative Tuesday to building a new road across Johns Island, and Charleston County Council agreed to study both options.
Photo by Brad Nettles
A bicyclist makes his way past traffic headed to Johns Island on Maybank Highway near River Road on Tuesday evening. Charleston County Council will study the possibility of widening Main and Bohicket roads or building a new road across the island.
The idea of widening the two-lane roads lined with Live Oak trees had been considered a non-starter in previous discussions, but island residents were looking for an alternative to possible cross-island road.
"At some point in time, someone has to evaluate the value of a tree versus the value of a life," said Councilman Victor Rawl, who lives on Johns Island.
He said he would only support a study of a cross-island road if a study of widening Bohicket and Main roads was also done.
"I have always had a problem with creating another road to Kiawah and Seabrook, because I think that it divides the land that is undeveloped," he said.
Many residents of the resort islands have long sought a road, or an expressway, across Johns Island.
Plans have come and gone several times, including one in 1995 to build a toll expressway from the Betsy Kerrison Parkway near Kiawah to Maybank Highway near the Stono River, continuing on to the Mark Clark Expressway in West Ashley.
The state Department of Transportation killed that plan in 1996 after a public outcry.
The planned completion of the Mark Clark Expressway to Johns and James islands would accomplish part of the 1995 road-building goal -- but without a toll -- and the cross-island road that the county will study could complete the 1995 vision.
County Council was divided on the issue of studying the cross-island road last year but agreed to move forward this time as part of a compromise plan that tied several Johns Island road plans into one vote.
Connecting the Maybank Highway improvements with the cross-island road study and intersection improvements gave enough people something they wanted, resulting in a near-unanimous vote.
Click on graphic to enlarge.
Significantly, because much of Johns Island is within the Charleston city limits, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley endorsed the plan last week.
With Rawl's amendment Tuesday night, the plan County Council approved on an 8-1 vote, with Councilman Dickie Schweers opposed, is this:
• Proceed with improvements to Maybank Highway supported by the city of Charleston. Charleston had opposed widening Maybank Highway to four lanes, and the county will go ahead with the city's less-intense alternative.
• Launch a study of the cross-island road, aimed at determining the possible routes and the environmental impacts, and also develop a request for proposals from companies that might finance, design and build it.
• Study, as a potential alternative, widening Bohicket and Main roads to four lanes.
• Proceed with engineering work on key Johns Island intersections, in most cases aimed at adding turning lanes.
The county currently has no money to either build a cross-island road or widen Bohicket and Main roads.
Councilman Paul Thurmond, the leading proponent of a cross-island road, said his aim is to improve traffic and traffic safety, and said special-interest groups have been distorting the issue.
"I was accused of being in bed with developers and all those things," he said. "I want road improvements on Johns Island."
"If it's (widening) Bohicket and Main, fine," Thurmond said. "If it's the cross-island, fine."
Longtime cross-island opponents Thomas Legare, a Johns Island farmer, and Louise Maybank of Wadmalaw, the former chair of the county's Greenbelt Advisory Board, both told County Council members they'd rather see trees cut down than see a new road across the island.
Legare also said that much of the traffic-safety problem on Johns Island is due to drunken driving.
"It's alcohol and trees, they don't mix," he said.
PREVIOUS STORIES
• Toll roads a tough sell in Palmetto State, published 06/22/08
• Toll road proposal rejected, published 10/17/08
• Johns Island toll panel rejected, published 10/31/08
• Johns Island toll road unlikely, published 12/18/08
• Riley lists road with stimulus projects, published 12/24/08
• Johns Island road plan advances, published 08/28/09
