UPDATED, 10/23/24 | Charleston Mayor William Cogswell presented a revamped new design Tuesday for a pedestrian-bike bridge across the Ashley River — just days after proposing changes to an approved design.
The Ashley River Crossing project – already designed, vetted, approved and funded for about $80 million after years of painstaking community work – is expected to begin construction next month. City Council voted last year to lock in the price and timeline.
But now a new plan unveiled at a Tuesday city council meeting represents a possible wrench in the works. The freshman mayor’s proposed changes could delay the construction — and likely cause a big price hike in costs, observers say.
“There’s no reason to continue with a different plan,” said Katie Zimmerman, executive director of Charleston Moves, a transportation advocacy nonprofit. “Cogswell is severely underestimating how many people are banking on commuting on this bridge versus pleasure-riding.”
Councilman Mike Seekings, chair of the Traffic and Transportation Committee, however, is optimistic that the proposal won’t affect the construction.
“We are going to do nothing to affect the facts of this project or the timeline of this project,” Seekings told the Charleston City Paper on Oct. 23. “We know we’re going to have to make some adjustments. We have some time to do that.”
Change of direction
The approved plan called for the bike-pedestrian bridge to be built adjacent to the bridge spanning the Ashley River at Lockwood Drive. It was to connect the West Ashley Greenway directly to the city’s Medical District and to serve as a recreational amenity and crucial pedestrian infrastructure.
Cogswells’ first proposed redesign altered the eastern approach to the drawbridge, cutting off its connection to the Medical District. Instead, it ended with a circular path on the downtown side of the bridge and a new boardwalk that directed pedestrians north to Brittlebank Park under the roadway.
“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.
But the second design presented Tuesday would reestablish some connection to the Medical District, but falls short of previous designs.
To say that the second proposal is confusing might be an understatement. Nevertheless, peninsula-bound pedestrians would appear to have three options:
- Head north on the new boardwalk to Brittlebank Park;
- Head a half mile south to a marina and cross Calhoun Street at a crosswalk;
- Or cross the dangerous “slip lane” that connects vehicular traffic on the bridge to Lockwood Drive to reach a sidewalk, and then cross Lockwood Drive at Bee Street.
Cogswell offered few details about traffic and safety improvements at the slip lane or at Lockwood Drive to protect the influx of pedestrians and bicyclists.
“It’s an entirely different vision,” Zimmerman said. “Cogswell sees this as an amenity, not a transportation project. … He has us going this way, but he doesn’t say how we’re going to cross Lockwood.”
The inclusion of the “doughnut,” as Cogswell called the circular addition to the bike-pedestrian path at the Lockwood Drive end of the bridge, would cost an estimated additional $5 million, Cogswell said, which would be partially offset by the “reduction in scope of the bridge.” But cutting it short, some say, defeats its original purpose.
“There are a number of funding sources we believe are out there, none of which we’ve put our finger on, but we know where they are,” Seekings said. “That project, on the Charleston side in particular, is eligible for hospitality dollars just like the Low Battery project — 100% funded through hospitality dollars — this is a natural extension of that.”
A lot ‘to be determined’ still
Some concerns with the mayor’s new plan were met with “to be determined” answers from Cogswell at the Oct. 22 meeting. Seekings and councilman William Dudley Gregorie asked for clarifications about flooding and safety.
Cogswell said flooding concerns were at least partially addressed by the ongoing sea wall project at the Battery.
“The Battery extension would get us at least 90% there from tidal flooding and sea level rise and storm surge,” he said. “Then, we’ll have to work on the Calhoun [Street] west to get stormwater out. But I think the Battery is an important first step.”
Zimmerman told the City Paper that one of the biggest safety concerns with the currently approved project is the so-called “slip lane” that connects the bridge to Lockwood Drive, the site of several car accidents over the years. The approved design would allow pedestrians to avoid the slip lane altogether, connecting past the Lockwood Drive intersection.
But Cogswell’s new proposal would dump northbound pedestrians at the corner of the slip lane, leaving questions in the air about safety improvements. Suggestions have ranged from speed bumps to signal lights to a complete overhaul of the intersection including additional lanes.
Seekings said specific options are to pinch the width of the lane — “it is a very wide right-of-way,” he said — take the curve further away from the pedestrian bridge to improve line of sight and to install “some devices” to slow traffic.
Cogswell said at the council meeting he was planning to meet with state officials to discuss the project and come back with more details, specifically regarding the slip lane.
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