Update on Yemassee’s Hwy 21 detour: Here’s when drivers can expect a new, wider bridge
After a train derailment damaged the highway’s bridge and shuttered a portion of U.S. 17A/21 last September, engineers now estimate the roadway will reopen in late June — featuring a new, wider and safer bridge for drivers leaving and approaching Yemassee. Traffic has been detoured through Castle Hall Road in the months following the accident.
Construction crews are clearing the area as they prepare to demolish the old bridge, which was built in 1938 and was in “urgent need” of repair even before the derailment damage, according to the Yemassee Police Department. The new bridge will be five feet higher with two 12-foot lanes, bookended by eight-foot shoulders on either side.
These changes are thought to be large safety improvements from the previous infrastructure, which had no shoulders across the bridge. The construction will bring the railroad overpass and surrounding roadway “up to current SCDOT design and safety standards,” according to the agency’s project description.
Yemassee Town Administrator Matthew Garnes said U.S. 21 is the “heaviest traveled connector” to the area. It also serves as the town’s main evacuation route, but Garnes noted the highway should be reopened well before peak hurricane season hits in mid-August.
The roughly two-mile span of highway has been closed to traffic since Sept. 20, when two hopper cars and one loaded flat car derailed from a CSX train passing under the bridge. No injuries were reported, although at least one of the bridge’s support beams was seen split apart as a result of the accident.
With portions of the town occupying two counties — Beaufort and Hampton — Yemassee serves as a crossroads for the Lowcountry. The highway’s reopening will bring travel back to normal for residents and businesses alike. Its proximity to Jasper County also has the route serving those travelers.
Garnes added that the closure of U.S. 21 has “significantly impacted” the work of Ferguson Forest Products, a logging contracting company located at the base of the bridge. When coming from the south, their roughly 65 logging trucks have to take the Castle Hall Road intersection into Yemassee town limits before turning back onto the highway to make it to the warehouse.
The traffic detour through Castle Hall Road will stay in place until U.S. 21 is reopened, Garnes said. Additional questions on the bridge construction can be directed to the Yemassee Police Department or SCDOT project manager Tyler A. Clark.
This story was originally published March 1, 2024 at 4:41 PM.
