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Quiet honestly I don't care anymore. This is something that should have been done years and years ago.
I've looked at biking with busing to work. The bus trip alone is almost twice the time of my current commute.
As far as I'm concerned they can take the money to fix the 526/26 interchange, expand Hwy 41, fix the choke point they created at 17 & Bowman, expand Rifle Range Road, and make Clement's Ferry a highway with frontage roads and access ramps.
As far as I'm concerned they can take the money to fix the 526/26 interchange, expand Hwy 41, fix the choke point they created at 17 & Bowman, expand Rifle Range Road, and make Clement's Ferry a highway with frontage roads and access ramps.
So take the money that would build a highway west of the Ashley and transfer pretty much all of it to make improvements east of the Cooper? Mount Pleasant has the best and most modern roads in the county.
James Island (Folly), Johns Island (Main, Maybank, a new access road), and West Ashley (Savannah, Rittenburg, Ashley River, pretty much everything in between) need more attention than anywhere else in the metro. Downtown also needs road and drainage work done to stop flooding on Lockwood, East Bay, and Calhoun. And 526 as a whole needs widening.
IMO Mount Pleasant and east of the Cooper is the last place money needs to go. They do need it, Hwy 41 and Rifle Range need to widened, but the other side of the county has it way worse and has been neglected too long. If you look at Google street view and do the timeline feature, you can see a lot of changes for Mount Pleasant and east cooper since 2007. Looking at West Ashley and co., since 2007 a lot of it has looked pretty much the same.
That's because East of the Cooper has outpaced both areas as far a growth is concerned. My point being there are other areas that could use the money for road work. But when the time comes to beat feet out of here and it's taking those folks 5 hours to get to 26 I don't want to hear a single grumble. Of the areas that need it the most East of the Cooper (I agree) is 41 and Rifle Range.
However, when you expand 41 if you don't handle Clements Ferry it's going to be a mess too over the next 5 years. The trucks have already torn up the road pretty bad. Add additional traffic from 41, new schools, and a huge housing development and you've got a problem. The time to deal with all that is now rather than waiting for it to become the mess.
The sad part is it takes insane flooding or decades of frustration to fix any of Charleston's traffic woes. Occasionally a bone is thrown and the Crosstown can be beautified or Mt Pleasant folks can get a new bridge or a new 17, but the rest of the metro has been sorely neglected and it will not be remedied anytime soon as the state and fed are showing an equal amount of iniative to raise the gas tax to the appropriate levels. Look at the projects on the docket for the states that have done so, just imagine what could happen in SC if the people were willing to pay for it and we had a functional Congress. Sure is a lot of road construction every time I drive through Columbia though....
That's because East of the Cooper has outpaced both areas as far a growth is concerned. My point being there are other areas that could use the money for road work. But when the time comes to beat feet out of here and it's taking those folks 5 hours to get to 26 I don't want to hear a single grumble. Of the areas that need it the most East of the Cooper (I agree) is 41 and Rifle Range.
However, when you expand 41 if you don't handle Clements Ferry it's going to be a mess too over the next 5 years. The trucks have already torn up the road pretty bad. Add additional traffic from 41, new schools, and a huge housing development and you've got a problem. The time to deal with all that is now rather than waiting for it to become the mess.
I dont know, James Island has been a little stagnant, but West Ashley and Johns Island have been growing steady. West Ashley is over 70,000 people now, which is a few thousnad under Mt P. Add in Johns and James Is and WA is over 120,000, which is way over East Cooper.
Mt Pleasant is also running out of room. Outer West Ashley and Johns Island is where most of the growth is about to shift too, whether they do 526 or not, because thats the only open land left in Chas Co.
Before it gets worse I think they need to fix whats already there, instead of compounding the problem. West of the Ashley is already behind the 8-ball in roads, aestethics, lights, signage, etc, I think they need it most, in my opinion. For me, driving through West Ashley and James Island is much more a headache and time consumption than Mt P. At least Mt P has the main lights synched.
I agree that the future growth potential is certainly there. But over the last 10 years East Cooper's growth has outpaced its infrastructure at a far greater pace.
The lights sync was a investment the MtP made itself. Certainly driving down 17 is far improved, but as you agreed 41 and Rifle Range need help.
I saw a great article in the editorials in the Post & Courier! The lady on Johns Island stated they could put a toll on the I-526 completion and she would be glad to pay the toll to save 30 minutes drive time and $5.00 worth of gas a day. Excellent, I also would gladly pay a toll to go to and from on the completion of 526! Let's go, everybody agree a simple toll would work and the idiots here in Charleston would finally get building since they say nobody has the money and they can't just start building it with half the money available! Set up the tolls!!
Yea, I never thought I would hope for a Cat 3 hurricane, but I do always like them go come up the coast and stay out at sea, and generate waves, I love that!
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