$20 Million Boost in Road Safety for Spartanburg
The sun was just beginning to rise on this delightful Tuesday morning when word landed of a big windfall for safer roadways around these parts. Drivers out and about in Spartanburg can expect soon to see some important changes to a couple of our busiest roads. Asheville Highway and North Pine Street, vital arteries leading into the Hub City, will enjoy major safety enhancements in the coming years thanks to a hefty grant from the federal government.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, a major player in ensuring our public highways are top-notch, has awarded $16 million to Spartanburg County for the project. You’re probably wondering how high will the taxpayer’s bill be after this? Well, the County Council has already pledged a further $4 million from local sources, bringing the total cost to an impressive $20 million.
In Pursuit of Safety
Council Chairman Mr. A. Manning Lynch has expressed the county’s resolve to upgrading our roads and highway safety. Given that the county’s roads’ve seen some of the deadliest accidents in the state, there’s no doubting we’ve got a great deal of work ahead. However, Lynch takes pride in the grant award, emphasizing that we’re off to a great start.
Be that as it may, no major disruptions should be expected. Details of the project are yet to be fully approved but according to Lynch, the upgrades should take a year or two to complete and significant detours or delays on the roads are unlikely. More precise details should be coming our way in the next six months, so stay tuned!
More Improvements on the Horizon
Don’t worry, the county doesn’t plan to stop road improvements with this project. If you can remember last November’s vote, the 1 percent local sales tax that we all agreed to renew is mainly focused on funding even more roadwork projects across the county. That’s right, folks, there’s still plenty of progress to come!
Seeking to tackle safety improvements on two important corridors, county officials paid close attention to recent accident data. Astonishingly, nearly 1,500 crashes occurred along Asheville Highway and North Pine Street of the over 50,000 crashes in Spartanburg County over the past five years. These roads, as we know, are some of the busiest in the county, and there’s no denying they’re ripe for an upgrade.
The county, unfortunately, stands second in the state in terms of traffic deaths, behind only neighboring Greenville County. Last year, we saw 74 total traffic deaths, just above the 68 noted in Greenville County. So, the need for these improvements is very real!
Focusing on Safety
So, what changes can we expect? Well, our Public Works Director, Travis Brown, sheds light that improvements will cover several aspects: road diets (typically reducing the number of a road’s lanes), signal and timing upgrades, and a public safety educational campaign. Moreover, the plan includes sidewalk and crosswalk improvements, bike-lane extensions, and manages access to limit left turns across the flow of traffic. What a breath of fresh air to our city!
Funding Road Improvements
Lastly, it’s worth noting bridges weren’t built in a day. The funding received is part of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress way back in November 2021. As Spartanburg County will oversee the management of the funds and the project, local spokesperson, Scottie Kay Blackwell, assures us that all the designs will be coordinated with state transportation officials. If any overruns occur with the project, no worries, our county will foot the bill.
A Final Word
The local Chamber of Commerce head, Allen Smith, speaking about the penny tax, underlined that the roads’ enhancements are vital for the well-being of our business community as well as the safety of everyone in the region. He affirmed, “fixing our roads should be a priority,” and with this big step, we are on a promising start!
