Lexington County recommends road projects for fall vote. Did yours make the list?
Lexington County has approved its list of recommended road projects to be funded if voters approve a new penny sales tax this year.
Lexington County Council last week approved a list of proposals to be considered by a special commission drawing up the list of projects voters will be asked to approve in November.
The total project list drawn up by the county adds up to $424.9 million in new spending. A total of 358 miles of roadway would be resurfaced, at a total cost of $109.6 million, divided up into eight roughly equal-sized packages for the committee’s consideration.
Public Works Director Brent Hyatt told council members his department has come up with 360 miles of Lexington County roadway in need of resurfacing. Of those, 260 miles are maintained by the S.C. Department of Transportation, Hyatt said.
One of the longer stretches of road begins as St. Peter’s Road at the intersection with Old Cherokee Road and runs south for six miles, turning into Charter Oak Road and then Pisgah Church Road, finally turning into Longs Pond Road before it meets Muddy Springs Road.
This corridor, which serves several subdivisions and businesses west of the town of Lexington and Red Bank, would be widened to four lanes, including a turn lane, Hyatt said, a sign of the county’s growing suburban population.* The project would also include widening a bridge over Interstate 20.
Improving that stretch of road would cost an estimated $64 million, according to the county’s projects list.
The county’s recommendations would also spend $37.4 million on intersection improvements on state-maintained roads
▪ Kitti Wake Drive at Emanuel Church Road - $3,500,000
▪ Fairview Road at Two Notch Road - $1,350,000
▪ Blackville Road at Fallaw Road - $3,500,000
▪ Old Barnwell Road at Shirway Road - $1,312,500
▪ SC 302 at Princeton Road - $1,137,500
▪ Nazareth Road at Cannon Trail Road - $3,500,000
▪ Old Barnwell Road at Ermine Road - $3,500,000
▪ US 76 at Sid Bickley Road - $1,312,500
▪ Nursery Road at Nursery Hill Road - $3,240,000
▪ SC 6 at Meadowfield Road - $3,500,000
▪ Fish Hatchery Road at Bachman Road - $1,312,500
▪ US 378 at Henbet Road - $1,137,500
▪ Platt Springs Road at Enterprise Parkway - $1,137,500
▪ Boiling Springs Road at Bethany Church Road - $3,500,000
▪ Barr Road at Rawl Road - $3,150,000
▪ Dogwood Road at Myrtle Road - $1,312,500
Another project would extend 12th Street south of Cayce to connect with Charleston Highway, which would also give commercial traffic access to an exit off Interstate 26. That corridor serves the Saxe Gotha Industrial Park that includes Nephron Pharmaceuticals and the Amazon Fulfillment Center. That project would cost $7.6 million.
Elsewhere, 74 miles of dirt road would be paved as part of the project, with an additional 64 miles of “contingent” road pavings also being recommended. The total dirt road package would cost $176.8 million. A list provided to The State does not spell out which dirt road projects would fall into the “contingent” packages.
Several items on the county’s list are similar to the projects prepared for a similar attempt to get voters to approve a capital sales tax in 2014. That referendum was ultimately unsuccessful.
Cities and towns in Lexington County are also being asked to submit their own recommended projects. Cayce’s city council voted earlier this month to go beyond roadway and seek sales tax funding for drainage improvements in the Avenues neighborhood, wastewater collection in the Avenues and Broadacres, relocating a utility line at Interstate 26 and S.C. 302, and improvements to the Riverwalk. The town of Lexington has hired a local engineering consultant to develop the town’s own project package, at a cost of $53,500.
The county did not include drainage work in its recommendations except for Black Avenue, a mostly residential half-mile loop in Lexington between 3rd Avenue and Hendrix Street. That project would cost $1.7 million.
Bridge repair and replacement projects in the recommendation list total another $8.1 million, with work on Archer Lane Bridge, Beaver Dam Road, Crestfell Road, Feather Run Trail and Goldstone Drive.
Another $19.4 million would go toward “complete street” projects for Archers Lane and Crossbow Drive, Bush River Road, Emory Lane, Ramblin Road/Pine Ridge Drive and Snelgrove Road.
Lexington County Council voted to send their recommendations to the volunteer committee that will weigh which projects to include in the list for the sales tax when voters are asked to approve it in November.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 11:36 AM.
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