When will those Pennies road jobs be done? York County’s top planner gives and update
Pennies for Progress manager Patrick Hamilton updated area road and elected officials Friday on a host of ongoing or coming projects in York County. Some of which drivers will notice within days or weeks.
Pennies is a voter-approved one-cent sales tax for road work. It started with Pennies 1 in 1997. Following referendum approvals came in 2003, 2011 and 2017. Next year, voters almost assuredly will get to decide whether to continue the tax for Pennies 5. A list of roads for that campaign is being developed now by an appointed citizen commission.
Here are some of the ongoing projects from past Pennies campaigns:
▪ The Celanese and Cherry roads intersection in Rock Hill is under construction as part of a $1.6 million Pennies 4 upgrade. Curb and gutter is in. Some asphalt is too. There will be some night work on the intersection improvement.
“We don’t really want to get into this part of the road during the middle of the day with the amount of traffic that’s in this area of the city,” Hamilton said.
The project should be complete with new turn lanes open within three or four weeks.
SCDOT data shows Rock Hill region has state’s most heavily traveled stretch of road.
▪ Hubert Graham Way was part of Pennies 2 in 2003. The $10 million road then known as the Tega Cay Connector linked Gold Hill Road to Stonecrest Boulevard, which got drivers out to S.C. 160. Pennies 4 included an extension of Hubert Graham up to Zoar Road.
Hamilton said the contractor finished up punch list items on that Pennies 4 extension and there is one final walk through this week. The road should open to traffic this week or next.
“This project is essentially complete,” Hamilton said.
▪ Final asphalt should begin in the next week or two on the Sutton Road and New Gray Rock Road intersection in Fort Mill. Signal poles are installed and signal heads should begin going in soon, Hamilton said.
“In the next several weeks we hope to have this project complete and open to traffic, with that traffic signal active,” Hamilton said Friday.
Once the new traffic signal is installed, it will have to flash for seven days before it goes live, Hamilton said.
“Once it starts flashing,” he said, “you know we’re getting very close.”
▪ Construction began this summer on Riverview Road in Rock Hill. The $9.5 million widening from Eden Terrace to Celanese Road was on Pennies 3 in 2011. Storm drainage work should begin in the next couple of weeks.
“This project is in the early stages and we expect about a two-year time frame for construction,” Hamilton said.
▪ A three-lane widening of S.C. 160 in Fort Mill heading toward Lancaster County had its pre-construction meeting earlier this month. In the next month or so dirt should start moving on that project, Hamilton said.
The $4.8 million Pennies 3 job will run from Springfield Parkway to the county line.
▪ Pennies put out construction bids for the U.S. 21 and S.C. 51 project in Fort Mill in June, but only got one bid. It was about 40% higher than expected. Pennies rejected the bid. One option to re-bid the project this winter involves separating the project into clearing and construction phases.
Hamilton said the size of the project ruled out some contractors. Splitting the project would clear the land and let utilities go in make their improvements ahead of full road construction.
“The option to split it up, we’re hoping we’ll be able to get more interest from multiple contractors,” Hamilton said.
The $50 million widening and configuration of the two highways in the Carowinds area of Fort Mill is part of Pennies 3. It runs from the North Carolina line through S.C. 51 and connects with U.S. 21, then runs south all the way to Springfield Parkway.
A separate project from Pennies 4 will widen U.S. 21 from the end of that ongoing work at Springfield Parkway down to S.C. 160, and there have been discussions in the upcoming Pennies 5 process about adding the remainder of U.S. 21 to the Catawba River bridge. There’s no final list yet for Pennies 5.
▪ The five-lane Lake Wylie widening of S.C. 557 should start construction later this year. Bids came last week and the county could finalize them in October.
A $25 million widening from S.C. 49 at the Three Points intersection to Kingsburry Road was part of Pennies 3 in 2011. Pennies 4 picked up a three-lane widening from Kingsburry to S.C. 55 at an estimated $25.5 million. The earlier, five-lane stretch is the one moving toward construction now despite a controversial route through publicly-owned park property and a pond that brought the state transportation secretary to York County to make sure the county was set on its path.
After considerable back and forth, the York County Council voted this summer to proceed with the planned widening route.
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