Demolition set to make way for USCB campus

Demolition will soon begin at the site of the future Hilton Head Island campus of the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

The town has fenced off the vacant buildings where the campus will be built, and will finish removing asbestos within the next two weeks, beginning with the Legendary Golf facility, Time Warner Cable building and The Kiawah along Pope Avenue and ending with the Carolina complex at Office Park Road, according to Derrick Coaxum, assistant facilities manager for the town.

Asbestos, the harmful material linked to several severe and fatal illnesses, was found throughout the buildings’ roofs and drywall taping, he said.

Once the buildings are cleared, Georgia contractor Complete Demolition will level them at a cost of about $507,500, Coaxum said. While it has up to four months to complete the work, the contractor will pause work for the week-long RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, which begins April 11.

Coaxum says it should take just about one month for demolition to reach the largest building, known as the Carolina Office Park.

“You might just see some larger trucks in the area hauling material out but I don’t think it’s going to impact traffic at all,” Coaxum said.

Construction on the $24.5 million, hospitality-management campus is expected to begin in early 2017, and it is expected to open for fall classes in 2018.

The project is happening in conjunction with more than $1 million in nearby traffic improvements and the potential for the college to build a $4 million Osher Lifelong Learning Institute building in the future.

The planned campus has critics, including former Town Council member Kate Keep who sued the town in February to try to block the campus’ construction, arguing it would add too much traffic to the already congested Sea Pines Circle.

In the suit, Keep notes traffic studies have found drivers’ already struggle to access the Sea Pines Circle from any direction within 150 seconds —a town requirement — and that additional traffic from the new campus will diminish the value of her Sea Pines home.

“The Plaintiff moved here to (Hilton Head Island) to get away from traffic jams and din of cars and trucks,” Keep’s lawsuit reads in part. “She relied on the (Land Management Ordinance) and its traffic protections when she purchased her home in Sea Pines Resort.”

Keep filed a revised complaint March 7, giving the town another month to respond.

Meanwhile, the town’s Circle to Circle Committee is studying traffic problems between the two Pope Avenue traffic circles. It next meets 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Town Council chambers.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Demolition set to make way for USCB campus."