Five Points road safety overhaul slated to start in 2023, SC DOT says. Here’s what we know
If all goes as planned, expect to see construction begin on a major road safety overhaul project in Five Points during the summer next year.
South Carolina Department of Transportation officials say they recently received needed feedback from local partners to move forward on full design work for the $4.85 million project. It’s an overhaul in the works for years to reduce crashes in the Columbia corridor that’s one of the most dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists in South Carolina, a state safety audit shows.
In an email to The State, Rob Perry, director of traffic engineering at the DOT, wrote there were several reasons for the tentative summer 2023 start date.
“We have to have construction plans completed several months out from advertising a project for contractors to bid on,” Perry wrote. “Through coordination with the city and the Five Points Association, we have been shooting for a summer period when USC is out to do this construction.”
Perry added that the DOT recently received information needed to move toward those 2023 plans.
“We have been closely coordinating this project with the city and the Five Points Association and just recently received a response back from the Five Points Association regarding parking as well as other improvements we plan to make to improve safety,” Perry wrote. “We could not move into full design efforts until we received that feedback.”
The proposed road safety project for the popular shopping and nightlife district includes Blossom Street, Devine Street and Harden Street.
Improvements will include flashing yellow arrow traffic signal and pedestrian upgrades, restriction of right turn on red maneuvers, upgraded pedestrian crosswalk markings, ADA ramp improvements, the installation of raised concrete medians with fencing and new curb radius bump-outs. The project also calls for the reduction of the number of through lanes on Harden Street from Devine Street to Blossom Street and on Devine Street from Harden Street to Saluda Avenue. The project will reallocate that space for bicycle lanes, curb extension to shorten pedestrian crossing distance, raised medians and wider sidewalks if possible, based on drainage conditions.
The area was identified for safety improvements due to how often motor vehicle crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists occur there. The project began with a road safety audit performed by a team consisting of members from DOT, the Federal Highway Administration, the city of Columbia engineering, planning and police, the University of South Carolina Police, the Palmetto Cycling Coalition and the Five Points Association.
The audit shows that from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2018, there were 232 vehicular crashes in that corridor and a “high frequency” of crashes involving pedestrians or bicyclists. Of the 232 crashes reported in the audit, a total of 17 of them involved bicyclists or pedestrians during that time period.
“We will continue to advance this project with feedback from our partners with the city and the Five Points Association to ensure the final product appropriately improves pedestrian safety,” Perry wrote.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 10:34 AM.
