Are some roads too far gone? How Pennies plans to handle some of Rock Hill’s busiest
It’s hard enough to put a price tag on road improvement projects, and weigh them against each other to decide which ones should happen.
But what about roads where there is no obvious fix?
Consider the intersection of Celanese and Mt. Gallant roads in Rock Hill. The juncture averages 64,000 vehicle trips daily and the city forecasts that figure likely will surpass 91,000 in coming years. By traffic modeling standards, it nearly earns failing grades. The city ranked the intersection No. 6 on its request list for Pennies for Progress funding.
A citizen commission met Wednesday, Oct. 11 to decide which countywide road projects would make the short list for a public Pennies vote fall 2024. Members did not advance Celanese and Mt. Gallant and instead chose others for pricing details.
Making the short list isn’t a final decision. But it can be seen as a strong indication how the commission thinks after holding public meetings throughout York County this year. Another Rock Hill intersection, at Cherry and Mt. Gallant roads, nearly missed the pricing list for the same reasons as Celanese and Mt. Gallant. The commission added it late despite more having questions than answers on how to fix it.
“It seems like a problem this region needs to solve,” said commission member Chris Leonard.
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Built environment
Pennies, the voter-approved cent sales tax set to hold its fifth referendum next year. It began in 1997 with a massive list of road needs that included new roadways or rural highways in need of widening.
Communities grew. Traffic followed. Many of the roads that could be widened were among more than $1 billion in Pennies, state, federal or matching grant road funding.
Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study director David Hooper often talks about a built environment now. Road planners can’t simply widen their way out of congestion issues, and how they have to deal with what’s already on the ground in busy areas, he said.
Cherry and Mt. Gallant, which is No. 4 on the city request list, is a good example of how a simple solution may not work. Tightened up against the four corners of that intersection are the city water filter plant, the Love’s Plaza shopping center, an express oil change and car wash site and a car dealership.
“A traditional improvement isn’t going to do anything at this intersection,” said Patrick Hamilton, Pennies program manager.
The Celanese and Mt. Gallant ntersection has a similar issue. It splits McDonald’s, Walgreen’s, Circle K and church properties on its corners. Widening either those large intersections would involve buying some commercial properties. Pennies could probably complete projects like the No. 5 Ebinport Road and Marett Boulevard intersection upgrade (estimated at $5 million-$9 million) for what right-of-way acquisition alone would cost at the built-up intersections, Hamilton said.
York County’s 5th Pennies for Progress road work list will likely be the most expensive
Superstreets, overpasses
If widening won’t work, planners would need to get creative. A concept that’s picked up steam in recent years for busy areas like U.S. 521 in Indian Land or the S.C. 160 corridor in Fort Mill is the superstreet.
A superstreet takes out left turns, typically from a smaller highway onto a larger one, by routing traffic right and creating turnaround space for traffic that traditionally would have gone left.
Superstreets tend not to work as well when both intersecting highways bring their own large traffic counts.
“I don’t even know if that would work with the amount of volume,” Hamilton said of Mt. Gallant and Celanese.
Another concept, though costly, is grade separation. One route would be elevated above the other, with ramps used to turn.
“It would almost be like an interstate intersection,” said citizen commission chairman Britt Blackwell.
The one noticeable, local example of that setup is at Anderson Road and Dave Lyle Boulevard in Rock Hill. Grade separation is higher priced than widening, and assumes space somewhere near the grade change for ramps to allow turn access.
Without a clear option for the built up intersections or others that may present the same challenges in the future, the Pennies commission even floated the idea of a new element to the 2024 vote. That would be money on the referendum ballot just to study and design upgrades at difficult intersections. It wouldn’t be the first time Pennies broadened its scope. Most notably, the last Pennies campaign in 2017 added money for road resurfacing that hadn’t been part of earlier campaigns.
Yet money for study and design, without being tied to construction funding, didn’t sit well with the Pennies commission. Blackwell said he tries to think like a voter would in crafting the roads list.
“Anything that creates questions is a bad thing for voters,” Blackwell said.
Record Pennies budget
Even with a budget that’s expected to be well higher than than any to date — the current Pennies 4 campaign could generate more than $300 million — there will be more road needs than what’s in the Pennies 5 funds to complete them. The commission focused largely on Rock Hill projects Wednesday, having held a public meeting there since the last meeting to short list projects this summer.
The commission sent a five-lane widening of Porter Road from Firetower to Long Meadow roads on for more detailed pricing. It was the city’s top priority and ballpark figures put it at $45 million or more. Other projects sent for pricing include White Street improvements from Charlotte to Jones avenues, Neely Road upgrades from Crawford to Robertson roads, the Cherry and Mt. Gallant intersection, the Ebinport and Marett intersection, a Bates Street extension and the Black Street intersection with Albright Road.
Commission member Zachary Zapack noted certain upgrades, like problematic intersections along Cherry or Albright Road, are important not just to neighboring properties.
“Those are main thoroughfares for the county,” Zapack said. “It’s not just Rock Hill.”
Fort Mill, Lake Wylie
Two new projects since the summer short list session also came up Wednesday in other high-growth, high-traffic areas. Only one made the pricing list.
Widening of S.C. 49 in Lake Wylie between the Five Points intersection and Daimler Boulevard will go on the list for pricing. It’s likely to be costly. At several miles that project could be more than $40 million. Commission members say they wouldn’t likely recommend it for the final list ahead of S.C. 49 upgrades between Buster Boyd Bridge and the Three Points intersection, which already made the short list. But they heard enough from the Lake Wylie community to price it.
The commission went the other way with the third of three prioritized projects submitted by Fort Mill. The town asked for a roundabout in front of Elisha Park to clean up the intersection of North White Street and Old Nation Road. The town reasoning is that area backs up with left turns on two-lane roads, and would benefit existing residents compared to larger Fort Mill projects — the two highest priorities — already sent for pricing.
The commission chose not to price that project since it wouldn’t likely be included at the expense of the town’s top two priorities, each likely to cost in the $40 million range. They are about two miles each of widening on U.S. 21 Bypass from Sutton Road to S.C. 160 and Fort Mill Parkway, and along Fort Mill Parkway from Holbrook Road to a railroad overpass at US Foods.
Hamilton said 95% of what he hears from Fort Mill residents involves those two large projects, and there is a “drastic difference” in concern about the park-front roundabout. Commission member Chad Williams said the only likely way the roundabout job makes the final list is if Pennies is unable to put both the two higher priorities on the ballot.
“Both those other projects are clearly important,” Williams said, “and not just to Fort Mill.”
Road resurfacing
Communities throughout York County submitted roads for resurfacing, too. Pricing for resurfacing is a little smoother than for new or reconstruction projects. Hamilton will create a list at whatever amount the commission chooses, and select roads based on public feedback and scoring of existing conditions.
Public input brought in 220 miles along 125 roads for resurfacing. The referendum amount may be $80 million to $100 million for resurfacing. Roads can cost $800,000 per mile now but Hamilton also has to consider how long it would take to get to the projects with a successful vote late next year.
“Five years from now it might be $1 million a mile,” Hamilton said. “So we have to plan for that.”
