What costs $1.4 million a mile? If you guessed a walking path in Beaufort, you’d be right
After 10 months of construction, residents who live in military housing and nearby civilian neighborhoods will have access to a new walking and biking path that spans 3.5 miles along Laurel Bay Road just outside of Beaufort.
It took a pretty penny to finish the project, with its growing $4.9 million cost — $1.4 million a mile — financed by a $3.4 million grant from the South Carolina Department of Veterans Affairs with the remaining $1.5 million raised in Beaufort County’s 2018 1% sales tax referendum.
Of more than 20 pathway projects that voters approved as part of the 2018 referendum, the Laurel Bay Path is the third to be completed.
“Without that, this project may not have advanced as quickly as it has,” said Jared Fralix, Beaufort County’s assistant county administrator-engineering, of the state grant.
Beaufort County plans to celebrate the grand opening of the 10-foot-wide sidewalk Friday. County officials say it will “seamlessly connect Laurel Bay Housing to the Marine Corps Air Station, creating a convenient route for residents, personnel, and those utilizing the trail for recreation.”
When the county originally advertised the conceptual budgets for projects that would be financed by the 2018 penny tax, the Laurel Bay project was listed at $3.2 million. As the project was developed, the amount grew to $4.2 million and finally $4.9 million.
Citing large increases in the National Highway Construction Cost Index, Fralix blamed rising material costs caused by inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic for the growing expense of the penny tax projects.
The referendum raised $120 million for various transportation related projects across the county with most of the funds going toward traffic improvements along the U.S. 278 corridor to Hilton Head Island, with an additional $30 million for Lady’s Island and $10 million earmarked for 24 sidewalks and and multi use pathways improvements.
The Laurel Bay Path is on the north side of Laurel Bay Road between Laurel Bay Military Housing Complex to U.S. Highway 21 (Trask Parkway). Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort is located across the highway from the path.
The Laurel Bay project, one of the longest path projects on the list of 24, is the third penny tax pathway project to be finished or nearly completed, according to the county’s penny tax website. Of that total, 17 are considered active. Of the 17 active projects, 12 are in the design phase; two are in the right-of-way acquisition phase; and three are now complete.
Beaufort County asked voters in November to approve another $950 million, in part to cover the cost increases in some of the 2018 projects. The measure was defeated.
The Laurel Bay work began in February. County officials plan to conduct a ribbon cutting ceremony near the intersection of Laurel Bay Road and U.S. Highway 21 Friday morning.
The wider path replaces a crumbling 5-foot-wide path constructed in the 1970s, but some raised questions about it when it was first proposed saying the money would be better spent elsewhere because few pedestrians use it. But others said the new trail would make it safer for pedestrians along the busy road.
The path will connect to the Spanish Moss Trail, Fralix noted.
The completion of the path comes as another project to make Laurel Bay Road safer is just getting beginning.
A roundabout — the circular traffic configuration that’s growing in popularity statewide — is in the works for a dangerous intersection near Laurel Bay and Stanley Farm Road that’s seen crashes in the double-digits over the past four years.
Construction of that $2.5 million federally funded project by the South Carolina Department of Transportation expected to begin in early 2025 and last for 18 months, the SCDOT says.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 12:37 PM.
