Bluffton Parkway flyover project to miss November completion date

The $45 million Bluffton Parkway flyover project will miss its planned November completion date, Beaufort County and construction officials said Tuesday.

The delay is due to the difficulty in building in the marsh, construction delays and S.C. Department of Transportation requests for more paving improvements on the mainland side of the project, officials said.

A new completion date has not been set and could not be estimated Tuesday, county and construction officials said.

"There are delays. We just don't know how long they are and we're working to try to keep those as close to the completion date as possible," county spokeswoman Joy Nelson said. "As of right now, our contractor and our engineering department are confident that we will come in under budget or right at budget once the project is complete, so that's good news."

Contractor R.R. Dawson Bridge Co. is managing the project, which will connect Bluffton Parkway to U.S. 278 at the bridges to Hilton Head Island when finished. This is the first delay the $45 million flyover project has had.

R.R. Dawson project manager Danny Sturgill declined to estimate a new completion date until engineers can determine what specific additions DOT is requesting for the project. State engineers are asking the county and R.R. Dawson to at least resurface the stretch of U.S. 278 from Buckingham Plantation Drive to the bridges and could consider additional repaving on Bluffton Parkway, he said.

Attempts to reach DOT officials Tuesday were unsuccessful.

In the mean time, workers will continue their scheduled installation of the girders and beams that will hold the flyover's ramps over U.S. 278, Sturgill said. The work will cause overnight lane closures on U.S. 278 near the Hilton Head bridges next week.

"We're asking the contractor to provide us with a schedule of the remaining days left to complete the project," county administrator Gary Kubic said. "Quite frankly, a couple months or six months on a three-year contract for such a complicated project -- I'd like to be done on time, but I understand that when we've got to count the blades of grass for an EPA requirement and drill more than 80 feet into marsh, there can be delays. It's a complex project."

County leaders have repeatedly said they would like to finish the project before next year's RBC Heritage presented by Boeing, which is scheduled for April 11-17. But even if the delays last that long, construction will stop during tournament week to avoid traffic delays, Kubic said.

"Impacts like affecting the Heritage are non-issues," Kubic said. "Just like we've done for the past few years, we've provided we'll stop that project and allow that traffic flow to continue unfettered so that the tournament doesn't miss a beat."

The Bluffton Parkway flyover is the largest single public works project built in Beaufort County since the $81 million Cross Island Parkway project was finished in 1997.

It is among the last of the projects approved by voters in a 2006 transportation improvement referendum. Other outstanding projects include Boundary Street improvements in Beaufort and the Bluffton Parkway 5B project.

Most notable among those remaining is the S.C. 170 widening project in greater Bluffton, which has been mired with delays and infighting between the county and contractor Cleland Site Prep.

Now more than a year overdue, the county fired Cleland Site Prep from the job this summer and officials have promised the widened highway between S.C. 46 and U.S. 278 will be open this fall.

NEW LANE CLOSURES

New overnight lane closures are planned for the flyover project this week and next for workers to install more concrete girders that will support the westbound ramp above U.S. 278.

The closures include:

• On Wednesday and Thursday, both eastbound lanes of U.S. 278 will be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. between Buckingham Plantation Road and the bridges. All eastbound traffic will be diverted to a westbound lane. Two-way traffic will be operating in the westbound lanes.
• Over two nights next week to be decided later based on the weather. On those days, both westbound lanes of U.S. 278 will be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. between Buckingham Plantation Road and the bridges. All westbound traffic will be diverted to an eastbound lane. Two-way traffic will be operating in the eastbound lanes.

If inclement weather happens, operations will be canceled and delayed until the following week, according to a release from the R.R. Dawson Bridge Company.

The Island Packet reporter Josh Mitelman contributed to this report. Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.

Related content:

• Work to finally complete SC 170 begins Monday , July 5, 2015
• Officials promise to finish SC 170 project this summer, despite county vs. Cleland fight , June 17, 2015
• Beaufort County looking into surprise lane closure on US 278 last Friday , Jan. 20, 2015

This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Bluffton Parkway flyover project to miss November completion date."