Increased traffic from new Walmart expected to overload key Lady's Island intersection
The intersection of Sea Island Parkway, Lady's Island Drive and Sams Point Road is the projected problem area, based on Walmart's traffic study.
About 17,000 cars currently travel Sea Island Parkway each day.
That number will jump to 23,000 when opens and cause long delays during peak hours of the day, according to a transportation model and Walmart's study.Drivers might have to wait through multiple traffic light cycles before moving on.
"So we're really faced with a key intersection on Lady's Island that is going to fail," Jim Hicks told the Northern Beaufort County Regional Plan Implementation Committee on Jan. 22. "When you go to work in the morning and come back at night, you're going to have long lines, and it won't be able to service it."
Hicks, chairman of the Lady's Island Community Preservation Committee, asked for a broader study of the area from the intersection out to Chowen Creek. He mentioned the zoning along Sea Island Parkway and asked whether new development should be paused while a traffic solution is devised.
The committee asked city and county planning departments to brainstorm ways to address the zoning question and alleviate traffic at the intersection.
Beaufort County planning director Tony Criscitiello said county and city planners met last week to begin discussing possible solutions and would present the Northern Beaufort County Regional Implementation Committee a plan.
"Bear with us," Criscitiello told the committee.
Among the options mentioned last week are a bypass -- an idea that originally came up years ago --or a new network of roads. Plans will also have to consider a proposed Harris Teeter development at the intersection.
Hicks said a bypass from Lady's Island Drive has been deemed unviable because of its expense. He said that there isn't enough traffic north of the intersection to justify a bypass there.
The intersection is as many as six lanes wide going north on Lady's Island Drive and is five lanes at the other junctures. County Councilman Brian Flewelling marveled that an intersection that size wasn't enough.
"You should be able to send through a ton of traffic, but it's going to fail," Flewelling conceded.
A traffic light will be going in at Walmart, the store coming soon to Sea Island Parkway off Airport Circle.
But the light doesn't comfort some Lost Island Road residents who anticipate a Taco Bell or similar drive-through fast-food restaurant on the other side of Sea Island Parkway not far from Walmart.
Lost Island resident John Holden reiterated concerns from area residents about getting on and off their road if a restaurant is added there. Sea Island Parkway narrows to one lane just before Lost Island Road, with cars often passing others in the median.
That creates a risky situation for those turning left off Lost Island Road, Holden said. Residents wrote the S.C. Department of Transportation and state lawmakers with their concerns.
They are hoping for a road connecting area residents to the traffic light.
Follow reporter Stephen Fastenau on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Stephen.
Related content:
- 'Our hands are tied,' Beaufort leaders say as Lady's Island Walmart construction looms, Jan. 28, 2016
- Lady's Island Walmart construction to start soon, Jan. 20, 2016
- Update: Lady's Island residents oppose rezoning, possible fast-food restaurant, Dec. 8, 2015
This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 9:46 AM with the headline "Increased traffic from new Walmart expected to overload key Lady's Island intersection."