Drivers in a hurry on 'Kiawah cut-through'

Berryhill Road residents says speeding chronic among those trying to avoid light Residents of Berryhill Road didn't sign up to live in the fast lane. But the fast lane cuts right through their tree-lined, rural neighborhood. Berryhill Road, a 1.3-mile stretch of asphalt that, along with a quarter-mile chunk of Walter Drive, links Maybank Highway with Bohicket Road, is known to locals as the "Kiawah cut-through." It's where drivers heading to or from Kiawah and Seabrook islands go to avoid the crowded stoplight at Bohicket Road and Maybank Highway. And when drivers use Berryhill as a cut-through, it usually means they're in a hurry. "They go so fast, you can't read the license plate," said Sister Nichols-Jones. Nichols-Jones, 65, has lived on Berryhill for seven years. She said she worries about her 6-year-old granddaughter who lives across the street. A few years ago, Nichols-Jones put a sign on her front lawn in the shape of a 3-foot-high fluorescent yellow person with the word "slow" printed across its chest. Nichols-Jones and other residents have called the Charleston County Sheriff's Office several times about speeders. She said the office occasionally has agreed to set up a speed checkpoint for a day or two. But the deputies can't be there all the time, and residents say the speeding is chronic. Coupled with increased development in the area, the speed and congestion add up to a dangerous mix, residents say. Tim Allen, whose house on Walter Drive has an entrance along Berryhill Road, said residents are considering petitioning the S.C. Department of Transportation to put speed humps on the road. "If they put speed bumps in, it would deter the traffic, I believe," he said. "They'd realize they can't come through here at 60 or 80 miles an hour." DOT District Engineering Administrator Robert Clark said no one has ever formally requested speed humps on Berryhill Road. If a request is made, Charleston County would have to do a study of the area to see if Berryhill Road meets the criteria for a road that needs a "traffic-calming device," Clark said. If the road meets the criteria, the DOT would issue a permit to the county to build the humps, he said.

Web site created by My Scribe