Sidewalk snarl delays road work near Bluffton Middle School

The widening of Buck Island and Simmonsville roads near the site of the new Bluffton Middle School will be delayed again because of residents' concerns about student safety.

Road construction, which was supposed to begin in May, is on hold until Beaufort County School District officials and the town of Bluffton discuss installing sidewalks for residents who will live near the school. The school is being built on the south side of Hyon Road, which connects Buck Island to Simmonsville.

A 1,500-foot stretch of both Buck Island and Simmonsville roads, now two lanes each, will be widened to three lanes, creating center turning lanes onto Hyon Road. The widening is to accommodate traffic at the new school, slated to open in fall 2010. The roadwork delay should not delay the school's opening, said Chris Poe, the district's executive director for planning and design.

The construction plans call only for sidewalks along Hyon Road and a small portion of Buck Island Road, Poe said.

Residents contend that if sidewalks were installed, their children and grandchildren would walk to school, since they are within a mile-and-a-half from the site. The district generally does not provide busing for students that close to the school unless safety concerns trump the policy.

Poe said the district would provide busing along Buck Island and Simmonsville roads in this instance.

"They are widening the road in front of my house but they are not putting any sidewalks on it," said Buck Island Road resident Michael Miranda, whose grandson Romeo Johnson will attend Bluffton Middle. "He would walk to school if it were safe. ... With all the developments in this area a mile-and-a-half from the school, it makes no sense."

Poe said the district plans to talk with the town of Bluffton, which plans to install sidewalks on those roads further in the future.

"We agreed to talk to the town to find out if that's a project they could escalate or move up sooner," Poe said.

Laura Morgan, Bluffton's director of planning and community development, said the town would install sidewalks sooner if funding were available.

The town allocated $300,000 in next year's budget for such pathways, with Buck Island and Simmonsville roads as the priority neighborhood, Morgan said. That amount, however, would pay only for the first phase of the project on some of Buck Island Road. The second phase would cover Simmonsville Road. The third and fourth phases would finish the connections along both roads.

Morgan said the town applied for a $1 million stimulus grant through the S.C. Department of Transportation to fund the entire project, but the agency has not announced recipients.

"We probably won't get it all," she said. "If we could get two phases paid for, we could use our money to do the rest of the connections."

Poe said he would schedule another meeting with residents once he discussed the possibility of meshing district and town plans into one project.