Solving Lady’s Island traffic problems: Plenty of ideas, but where’s the money?

If you drive in the area, you know one thing for sure: there is a traffic problem on Lady’s Island.

What’s not known is how a set of proposals aimed at easing congestion around the intersection at Lady’s Island Drive, Sams Point Road and Sea Island Parkway will be paid for and when those projects could begin.

Plans presented by traffic consultants to local officials last week included a series of projects to help traffic flow smoothly and safely.

Bret Gillis, of consulting firm Stantec, told members of the Northern Beaufort County Regional Plan Implementation Committee — which includes elected officials from the City of Beaufort, Town of Port Royal and Beaufort County, as well as representatives from other county planning panels — that nearly 50,000 vehicles traverse Lady’s Island’s major intersections every day.

As new residential and commercial areas continue sprouting up along Sea Island Parkway, congestion is “going to get a lot worse as traffic volumes grow,” Gillis said.

To avoid that fate, Stantec’s study — which focused on the Sea Island Parkway corridor from the Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge to the Chowan Creek Bridge — recommended widening particularly busy sections of roadway, and adding new connection roads, mini-roundabouts, turn lanes, medians.

The study cost about $88,000 and was paid for mainly using impact fees from the Lady’s Island Wal-Mart project.

It’s not just congestion that’s an issue in the area, local leaders say.

“There have been some concerns from residents (about) safety,” Beaufort County Councilman York Glover said.

Data appears to confirm the validity of these concerns.

Between 2012 and 2015, there were 541 crashes — 180 collisions with at least one person injured —and two fatal wrecks on roadways within the study area, Gillis said.

“About once a week someone gets injured on these roadways,” he said.

The traffic study — which local residents got a chance to weigh in on earlier this year — suggests that adding landscaped medians, more sidewalks, and improved lighting could help make the corridor safer for drivers and pedestrians.

Beaufort County Councilwoman Alice Howard said, “I think all of this is coming together well and we are looking at it comprehensively.”

But there are still no cost estimates or time lines for any large scale improvement projects.

Gillis acknowledged that it would be very difficult to “to be able to do it all at once because its such a big area.”

The next step would be for the county decide what, if anything, should be added to its list of its capital improvement projects, where they could be eligible for impact fees.

“With all of our capital improvement priorities, it’s going to be hard (to find funding),” Howard said. “But we’ve got to do it.”

The county’s Natural Resources Committee is expected to weigh in on the study, its recommendations, and potential funding sources later this month.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Solving Lady’s Island traffic problems: Plenty of ideas, but where’s the money?."