Route 278 Corridor Issues – July 2020 Update

Thanks for all your support and the support from members of COIN (Coalition of Island Neighbors) and from the many folks responding on Nextdoor. All are tremendously concerned about the current direction of this project.

The single most important thing we all want is a short independent engineering review of the various options for carrying traffic safely from Moss Creek to the X-Island parkway and local route 278. That report should list total cost, capacity and peak delay, and project issues, just like a Consumer Reports article for a new refrigerator would. The traffic capacity and delay should be computed via end – end simulation and not just by estimating some individual pieces. We are about to spend $300 -$500 million on this project without such a view of our options.

The best chance of getting Town and County Councils to support such a review is to further increase the counts on the Petition. We have about 2600 now, and we would like to see that number at least double, or more. Please tell your friends and neighbors about this and have them pass it on. The Councils notice these numbers.  

Here are some other recent updates:

·          The SC Transportation Infrastructure Bank (SC TIB) approved $120 million for this project, but basically left it to the Town, County, and SCDOT to work out the plan details. Construction is planned to start in 2023.

·          The plan is to support a 39% traffic increase to/from Hilton Head Island from 2018 to 2045.

·          The SCDOT study still stops at Spanish Wells Road, and the County funding stops at Squire Pope Road. None consider the full path to the X-Island parkway to/from which about half the peak traffic flows.

·          The often used picture (e.g. shown to the SC TIB and published in the Packet) indicating traffic congestion at the merge onto the bridges is highly misleading. Using time-lapse views from Google Traffic it can be shown that the traffic clot actually starts at the Spanish Wells and Squire Pope lights and slowly proceeds West onto the bridges as the day wears on. That picture actually shows the result of the clot and not a bridge issue. Unless the Spanish Wells and Squire Pope intersection problems are fully addressed, building more bridge lanes will not solve the congestion problem.

·          A direct path to the X-Island to bypass the lights and intersections is an option that should at least be evaluated but has been ignored.

·          The SCDOT plans do not appear to deal with intersections well (from both a traffic and beauty standpoint.) Their own consultants have also warned them about Jenkins Island problems.

·          Representations made to the SC TIB list the number of accidents in the Corridor and say that this project will increase safety. But internal SCDOT data shows that these accidents are concentrated at intersections. Thus, the current plan, with its intersection problems, could actually make matters worse.

We all want a solid plan to repair our congestion problems in a safe and beautiful way. To accomplish that Town Council and residents need to become very knowledgeable about the detailed issues, numbers, and pros/cons of these plans. After all, this is happening at our doorstep.

The best way to accomplish this is an independent engineering review to produce the data we need to guide us, but do not have. Such a review will not be costly, and there is little to lose. If the present plans are the best, they will be rapidly confirmed and there will be no surprises. If not, we will get an early warning in enough time to make needed changes. I see this as a cheap insurance policy on our $300 -$500 million outlay.

Please help increase the Petition counts to bring about this much needed independent engineering review.  

Thanks,

Steven M. Baer   7/10/20