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State lawmakers designated Bohicket Road on Johns Island as a scenic highway
12 years ago. This year, a new study will try to pin down exactly what that
means.
The outcome of the new Bohicket corridor plan - which will involve a public
hearing this fall - will list historic and other important cultural features
along the 10.3-mile long highway, which begins at Maybank Highway and ends
at River Road and the Betsy Kerrison Parkway. It also will provide
recommendations for protecting these sites.
The Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments is doing the study
with help from a $34,760 grant from the Federal Highway Administration.
Planners gave COG members a briefing on its progress Friday.
The study comes as Johns Island's growth - plus traffic to Kiawah and
Seabrook islands - is expected to lead to an ever larger number of vehicles
maneuvering along Bohicket's two lanes, flanked by mature live oaks and
Spanish moss.
Jane Barr, a COG member who lives along Bohicket, asked whether the scenic
designation would prevent the eventual widening of the highway to four
lanes. "People who live out there are very concerned about traffic," she
said. "Bohicket is a death trap."
COG director Ron Mitchum said the scenic designation wouldn't forbid its
widening, but the study's results could help shape the design of any
Bohicket project.
Still, widening Bohicket to four lanes would cause the highway to lose its
scenic status, said Johns Island resident Sam Brownlee, who also lives off
Bohicket.
Although the legislature designated Bohicket as a scenic road a dozen years
ago, this is the first planning effort looking specifically at what makes
the highway scenic and how to preserve those qualities. The study is being
modeled after a similar plan for the Ashley River Road corridor, said COG
senior planner Yvonne Gilreath.
Once the plan is finished, it is expected to give advice on new signs,
sidewalks, traffic calming measures and intersection improvements. Gilreath
said the agency expects to hold public hearings on the plan sometime between
late September and November.
Bohicket is one of eight scenic byways in the Lowcountry and one of 19
across South Carolina.
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