Improvements coming to Columbia street where 3 have been killed. You can weigh in
Columbia residents along Millwood Avenue are being invited to share their thoughts on changes coming to the dangerous roadway.
Three people have died on the 1.5-mile stretch between Devine and Gervais streets in the last four years. Now the city is rolling out planned improvements including turn lanes, a pedestrian/bike path and narrower lanes designers hope will slow traffic.
But those plans could still change depending on what response planners get from residents who live along the street. Officials presented the plans at two public meetings this week at Martin Luther King Jr and Melrose parks to get public feedback on the plans before work starts this spring. Another meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the cafeteria of Dreher High School.
Starting in April, crews will remove the existing asphalt and repave the street from the intersection with Gervais to the corner of Gladden Street, using $485,000 from the state Department of Transportation. The planned additions will make the street safer for pedestrians, who can have difficulty crossing the busy street.
“I’ve seen kids trying to cross, elderly people trying to cross, and they had to get across four lanes with nowhere to stop and cars coming around a bend,” said S.C. state Rep. Seth Rose, D-Richland, who pushed for state funding for the project.
Between the turn lane and the bike path, driving lanes will narrow from 16 feet to 13, transportation officials said. Narrower lanes will encourage drivers to go more slowly, they said.
Millwood currently lacks a turn lane in most places. The improvement project will include a turn lane throughout, as well as a four-foot bicycle path on either side. The changes won’t affect on-street parking, except for two spaces that will be removed near Tree Street.
Traffic data showed that in addition to the fatalities, 50 injuries have resulted from crashes on Millwood in the past four years, according to data presented at the public information meetings.
While work up to Gladden Street will be completed by August, a second phase of road work from Gladden to Devine won’t take place until 2023, when more funding will be available, said DOT district traffic engineer Lori Campbell.
“Gladden is just where the half million dollars runs out,” Campbell said.
Last year, the same stretch of Millwood received a new light-assisted crosswalk at the intersection with House Street, an area with a lot of pedestrian foot traffic, at a cost of $35,000.
Josh Shelton, president of the Historic Melrose Neighborhood Association, said the area has wanted changes for a long time.
“Especially with the fatalities,” he said. “There have been two of those since I moved into the neighborhood.”
He said residents still want more improvements along Millwood, such as “greenscaping” the street to include more trees, and burying utility lines.
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 11:51 AM.
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