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"It's the only project like it in the country," said Lowcountry Council of Governments planning director Ginnie Kozak.
Kozak presented the transportation proposal to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials on Aug. 5 in Seattle, she told the Beaufort County Northern Regional Plan Implementation Committee on Friday. She said her presentation caught the attention of an official with the Federal Transportation Administration.
The plan would create a trail for bikers and pedestrians using a section of the old Port Royal Railroad, from Ribaut Road to S.C. 170. A company hired by the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority recently began the yearlong process of removing the tracks. The authority bought the rail right of way to protect its underground pipes there and improve service. BJWSA has been working with local governments to use the right of way for a trail.
The trail would connect to a bus system, Kozak said, allowing users to put their bikes on a rack on the front of the bus and travel throughout the area using both modes of transit. New sidewalks and bus routes would be added where studies determine they would be most used.
The Federal Transportation Administration awarded the S.C. Department of Transportation a $3.1 million grant in July to help Beaufort develop bus service. Kozak said that with local matches, the project has $4 million in funding.
However, that would only cover a small portion of the entire plan, which was submitted as part of a 2009 grant request for $24.7 million.
The federal government and the DOT are still clarifying how the grants can be spent.
Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling, who is on the implementation committee, suggested he be sent to Washington, D.C., to ask that the county be allowed to administer the money, rather than waiting for the state to disburse it. The motion would also have made creating a network of sidewalks the first priority.
"We have the capacity today to connect the apartment complexes where the poor people live on Salem Road, Battery Point, up through (S.C.) 170 all the way to the YMCA," Keyserling said. "Let's not let this thing be driven by bureaucracy and by staff."
He said the committee could consider expanding those sidewalks to bus routes later, if the money becomes available.
Planning commissioner Jim Hicks and others argued the county has no authority to take such action, and it could jeopardize the grant. The committee rejected Keyserling's motion 5-4.
Kozak said further analysis is needed before determining where the first sidewalks and bus routes would go and how much could be done with $4 million. The S.C. DOT will submit a new plan for the project to the FTA later this year.
