Picture courtesy of SCDOT
The brand new stretch of Berlin G. Myers Limited-access highway is the 3rd and ultimate section of a venture at the planning stage for 18 years.
Paintings continues on a South Carolina Division of Transportation (SCDOT) venture 18 years within the making. Contractors started rebuilding a portion of the Sawmill Department Canal Path in Dorchester County previous this yr. The path building paintings is an element of the $137 million Berlin G. Myers Limited-access highway Segment III Challenge, a brand new 3.25- mi. roadway these days below building.
“SCDOT will rebuild the Sawmill Department Canal Path between Luden Pressure and Elizabeth Side road the use of a three-staged building plan,” SCDOT stated. “Operating in coordination with town of Summerville and Dorchester County, SCDOT has evolved a plan for the Sawmill Department Canal Path to stay open to cyclists and pedestrians all through building. Right through every path building level, cyclists and pedestrians shall be detoured onto an adjoining portion of the newly positioned asphalt roadway, which isn’t but open to car visitors.”
Picture courtesy of SCDOT
The brand new stretch of Berlin G. Myers Limited-access highway is the 3rd and ultimate section of a venture at the planning stage for 18 years. The throughway is an alternative number one path to U.S. 17A within the the city of Summerville, positioned about 25 mi. northwest of Charleston. The venture comes to the development of a four-lane, 3.25-mi. roadway between U.S. Freeway 17 Change and East Carolina Street, together with the development of 7 new bridges and the just lately began reconstruction of the shared use pathway alongside Sawmill Department.
Banks Building of North Charleston, S.C., is the contractor on web page with United Infrastructure of Nice Falls, S.C., charged with building of bridges.
“This venture is had to accommodate expanding visitors volumes within the Summerville house,” stated Hannah Robinson, SCDOT media family members coordinator. “Through 2040, projected visitors volumes display that a lot of roadways within the venture find out about house can be running at a deficient stage of provider if Berlin Myers Limited-access highway Segment 3 weren’t built. Site visitors modeling presentations that the development of the Berlin Myers Limited-access highway Segment 3 will lend a hand enhance visitors stipulations alongside Summerville roads by means of as much as 45 %.”
Sawmill Department is a federal flood keep an eye on venture built by means of the USACE and the non-federal sponsors of town of Summerville and Dorchester County within the early Nineteen Seventies, in step with SCDOT. Hydrologic modeling was once performed to research the brand new roadway’s impact at the Sawmill Department venture and floodplain and the design delicate to offset attainable floodplain affects.
“Building of Levels 1 and a couple of was once finished in 1998,” Robinson stated. “Building of Segment 3 was once deliberate for about 2007. On the other hand, following Storm Katrina and different storms, environmental rules modified, requiring 408 allow necessities that might in the end practice to this venture. SCDOT then labored to additional prohibit environmental affects, mitigate unavoidable affects and carry out the vital calculations and modeling for the granting of the ones 408 permissions. In 2020, SCDOT held public hearings concerning the venture’s environmental affects. Ultimate approval was once granted, and the venture entered Segment 3 building in 2022.”
Dorchester County officers stated the brand new throughway will function a bypass path, relieving force on different native roads.
Picture courtesy of SCDOT
“Primary Side road is at its limits and can’t be prolonged. As well as, congestion shall be relieved round Summerville Prime Faculty,” stated Stephen Grant, chair of the Dorchester County Transportation Authority (DCTA). “There are lots of companions to thank for persevering for a few years to get this venture to building, particularly the folks of Summerville and Dorchester County who positioned their accept as true with in us to support the standard of lifestyles for our electorate.”
Whilst the venture price range of $137 million is best an estimate, it’s supported by means of $35 million in DCTA price range, $30 million in South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Financial institution (SCTIB) price range and $74 million in Charleston House Transportation Learn about/SCDOT Budget.
“This is a superb instance of the way a centered and collaborative effort on an advanced and complicated venture can ruin thru years of hindrances to supply a lot wanted visitors reduction for the electorate of our state,” stated John B. White Jr., chair of the SCTIB. “[The bank] appreciates the chance to lend a hand the DCTA, [and the] Charleston House Transportation Learn about/SCDOT Fund [to] ship a a hit venture for the Summerville house.”
The brand new stretch of the Berlin G. Myers Limited-access highway is scheduled to be open to motorists in August of 2026. CEG
Lori Tobias
Lori Tobias is a journalist of extra years than she cares to rely, maximum just lately as a personnel creator for The Oregonian and up to now as a columnist and contours creator for the Rocky Mountain Information. She is the writer of the memoir, Hurricane Beat – A Journalist Studies from the Oregon Coast, and the radical Wander, winner of the Nancy Pearl Literary Award in 2017. She has freelanced for a lot of publications, together with The New York Occasions, The Denver Publish, Alaska Airways in-flight, Herbal House, Highlight Germany, Vegetarian Occasions and the Miami Usher in. She is an avid reader, enjoys kayaking, touring and exploring the Oregon Coast the place she lives along with her husband Chan and rescue puppies, Gus and Lily.
