Plan to untangle busy Lexington intersection is changing. When will work begin?
Road work on Lexington’s Sunset Boulevard is set to move further up Corley Mill Road after a vote by Lexington Town Council on Monday.
For years, Lexington has worked to reroute traffic on Sunset Boulevard near Interstate 20, a plan dubbed the Sunset Split because of its aims to add a second roadway for traffic heading toward and away from the interstate.
The latest round of work in the area will realign Corley Mill Road, which runs north of Sunset/U.S. 378 toward River Bluff High School and housing developments along the Saluda River. In fact, continued development in the area necessitated the latest change.
“Because there’s been a neighborhood built, our three lanes have to match up to their three lanes,” said Randy Edwards, Lexington’s transportation director.
A planned redesign will extend the project 750 feet up Corley Mill, pushing the three-lane section of road from the Corley Mill House to the entrance to the River Ridge subdivision.
The proposed changes will increase the $2.9 million project design budget by another $243,211. Those funds will come from hospitality tax and TIF funding, the council was told.
Lexington will also need to use another $36,700 in hospitality tax funding to purchase another six tracts of land for right-of-way on the realignment.
Now, “all has to be investigated for environment, pavement, as well as geotech for doing the widening,” Edwards said.
The total project cost is expected to be more than $30 million, the town has said.
What will the Sunset Split project do?
Ultimately, the plan will realign Corley Mill’s connection with Sunset so that traffic will be directed down a new road around the TD Bank building and out onto Sunset across from Honda of Columbia.
Edwards said the adjustment is being made after the town got feedback from the S.C. Department of Transportation on the design.
“If it’s going to be required by SCDOT, then there’s nothing we can do,” Mayor Hazel Livingston said.
At Monday’s meeting, Gracie Stevenson with Grace Outdoor Advertising raised concerns about billboards her company uses along the affected stretch of road. The owners of the property where those signs sit could be affected if they have to be removed.
“Sometimes we lease the space and the property owner gets a percentage of the gross income, so they have an interest in how this happens,” Stevenson said.
Edwards said property owners affected by any changes will be contacted by letter and through a representative of the town.
The initial design for the new intersection was put together in 2020 and then redesigned in 2024, when the town announced it was reallocating state funds to help pay for the project. Those funds were initially put toward plans for a controversial conference center and resort at Lake Murray that were ultimately shouted down by intense public backlash.
Edwards said he now expects the road project to get underway in early 2027 and to be completed within 18 to 24 months of the start date.
According to state Department of Transportation data, a daily average of 33,800 vehicles travel along Sunset Boulevard near its intersection with Corley Mill and Interstate 20, while Corley Mill sees 14,200 where it meets up with Sunset.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 2:25 PM.
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