Nearby roads might be improved to ease jams at Malfunction Junction

State transportation officials are considering widening routes such as Broad River and St. Andrews roads to help take the pressure off the badly congested I-20/I-26 intersection.

The idea is a new part of a package of possibilities outlined Thursday to area residents.

Enabling nearby roads to handle more traffic should help reduce congestion at what many commuters and cargo haulers call Malfunction Junction.

“Making improvements that we can on parallel roads might take some traffic off that corridor,” said Brian Klauk, a state transportation engineer who will oversee the project.

Broad River and St. Andrews roads are prime candidates for that step, he said.

There are no similar thoroughfares along I-20. But state officials will look at a long-standing suggestion to build a road from Irmo to Blythewood linking I-26 and I-77 to help alleviate traffic tie-ups elsewhere.

Those ideas are among a package of proposals under review. Others include:

▪ Additional lanes, including elevated ramps, on I-20, I-26 and possibly I-126

▪ Signals on entrance ramps to control traffic flows

▪ Lanes reserved for multiple commuters in the same vehicle

▪ Longer merging lanes

▪ More use of buses and a possible commuter rail system

 

The plan that emerges “could be a combination of various alternatives,” Klauk said in an interview.

State officials intend to bring back a preliminary list of ideas by next summer, with a final plan settled on by mid-2018.

Construction could cost as much as $800 million and take up to 10 years to complete, according to some preliminary estimates.

Adding features will take time and likely create new bottlenecks given heavy traffic on the roads that must be accommodated during the work. So improvements probably will come in stages, officials say.

The highways were built in the 1960s, with improvements from 1976-97 as more neighborhoods and stores rose along the routes.

Those improvements haven’t prevented traffic from sometimes overwhelming the corridor, particularly during morning and evening rush hours.

“It’s too many people and not enough options, not enough roads,” Lisa Holloman of Pelion said.

The commute from her home to her job in the St. Andrews area takes 35 to 95 minutes depending on congestion, she said.

No one foresaw the number of vehicles today traveling the roads as the Columbia area grew and I-26 became a lifeline between Lowcountry ports and the Upstate manufacturing hub.

Up to 133,600 vehicles travel through the I-20/I-26 intersection daily, traffic studies say.

State officials agree the corridor is a nightmare for motorists.

“It’s not meeting current needs,” Klauk told nearly 100 people at a meeting at Seven Oaks Elementary School in St. Andrews. “It won’t meet future needs.”

Correcting the situation is a top goal of state transportation officials. But making it happen runs into uncertainty over where money will come from for the project. So far, $92.6 million is set aside for it, officials say.

Tackling the problem is overdue, some area residents say.

“This should have been something undertaken 20 years ago,” retired state worker Richard Jesse of St. Andrews said. “We knew this was a problem then.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 7:26 PM.