MORNING HEADLINES | Charleston is moving ahead with a pedestrian-bike bridge over the Ashley River after the city’s traffic and transportation committee on Tuesday night approved a slightly modified plan after the project got past a potential snafu.
The new plan for the bridge, which is already under construction on the West Ashley side of the project, includes a landing pad, or pedestrian roundabout, where the bridge meets the peninsula. It would be an elevated structure that connects to Brittlebank Park and Bee Street and includes a viewing platform of the Ashley River. The proposal would also allow for a connection between the landing pad and the Battery path in the future.
“I think it will be safer and it will be a lot more pedestrian-friendly as well,” Charleston Mayor William Cogswell said. “Trying to tie all of these things together and be thoughtful about them because when you design projects like this you want to make sure you’re not just thinking two or three years down the road, you want to think 25, 50 years down the road.”
City leaders are looking for ways to address safety concerns about the slip lane coming off the bridge onto Lockwood Drive, where people tend to speed, according to Cogswell. The city is working with the S.C. Department of Transportation on ways to slow drivers and keep pedestrians safe while crossing.
The total cost of this plan is $92 million, however, the city’s portion is only about $10 million of that total. Cogswell said the remaining will be covered by federal funding.
Narrowly avoided snafu
Cogswell amended the design of the bridge project twice within a week in late October, after the design had been approved, funded and locked in by a 2023 council vote. Advocates feared the changes would cause a hike in costs and delays in construction.
But small changes to the design since then have more closely realigned the bridge with its original proposal, while keeping Cogswell’s personal touches (like the pedestrian roundabout) in place.
“Having this access to Brittlebank Park, having this amenity, having this as preparation for the future, I think this is an exciting, prudent and fiscally responsible way of going,” Cogswell said at the Oct. 22 meeting.
Katie Zimmerman of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group Charleston Moves has been keeping up with the project for years, and is excited to see it finally moving forward, according to media reports.
“Actually seeing construction starting, actually seeing sort of close to finalized designs, those are two steps where it’s just really, I cannot emphasize enough how exciting this is — particularly as somebody who’s been biking over the existing bridges for 17 or 18 years now.”
In other recent stories:
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Johns Island ballfields expected in January. The city of Charleston and Charleston County School District provided an update on the Johns Island Park project, announcing that the project may not be completed until January. It was originally slated to open in time for upcoming baseball and softball seasons.
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Mount Pleasant road project will hurt wetlands. Long-awaited changes to the interchange at Long Point Road and Interstate 526 are inching closer with the state Department of Transportation’s application for permits submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers and the S.C. Department of Environmental Services.
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