Bluffton Parkway flyover project: Completion not likely until 'early summer'

Work on the $45 million Bluffton Parkway flyover, scheduled for completion in March of 2016, will not likely be completed until about three months later, county traffic engineer Colin Kinton said Thursday.

"I think it's going to be early (next) summer," Kinton said. The flyover will connect Bluffton Parkway to U.S. 278 at the bridges to Hilton Head Island.

The flyover had been scheduled to be done next month, but county and construction officials -- R.R. Dawson Bridge Co. is the primary contractor -- extended that deadline in August, in part because of a request by the S.C. Department of Transportation that resurfacing of a half-mile stretch of U.S. 278 be added to the project.

"It's where the ramps for the Bluffton Parkway flyover tie in to U.S. 278, all the way up to the bridges over Mackays Creek," Kinton said of the section to be resurfaced.

That work will cost around $500,000, he said, with the S.C. DOT pitching in half that amount. Beaufort County Council will be asked to approve the additional expense, as well as the new completion date, at its next meeting on Oct. 26.

Work on the flyover project began in May 2013.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Bluffton Parkway flyover project: Completion not likely until 'early summer'."