Rock Hill council expands downtown tractor-trailer truck ban

Truckers will have to give downtown Rock Hill a wider berth than originally thought.

The Rock Hill City Council gave final reading approval Monday to a proposal to block large trucks from passing through the downtown business district, with a longer stretch of road closed to truck drivers than envisioned by the version that passed first reading before the council two weeks earlier.

Under the final proposal, truckers driving on Cherry Road will be blocked from traveling on Charlotte or Oakland avenues, rather than freely driving south on either avenue to Wilson Street or the Dave Lyle Boulevard overpass, respectively, as seen in the original plan. To the east of the downtown area, the White Street closure will extend out to Albright Road/East Main Street from the Columbia Avenue/Constitution Boulevard area. So will Black and Main streets east of Dave Lyle Boulevard.

Originally, these stretches of state-maintained roads were provisionally included in the city’s plans but had to be approved by the S.C. Department of Transportation. But Deputy City Manager Jimmy Bagley said Rock Hill has since received DOT’s consent to close the streets, as well as an agreement on the signs that will alert long-haulers to the affected roadways.

“They wanted to change the signs to standard DOT specifications, so they will be the same on city and state streets,” Bagley said. “Once it’s approved (by the council), they will basically rubberstamp it.”

Bagley said the city has had several incidents where multiaxled trucks have had difficulty in navigating the narrower downtown streets, leading to damage to city property. Last month, portions of a brick sidewalk and streetscaping were damaged when a tractor-trailer jackknifed near the new Fountain Park. But Bagley said that was only one instance of trucks jumping curbs in the area.

“We’ve had to replace landscaping two or three times, where they’ve done a couple hundred thousand dollars’ worth of damage,” he said. “Pedestrian safety is a concern, especially … now that downtown is becoming an attraction.”

The new ordinance does make one exception: Trucks making deliveries to downtown businesses will still be able to make their runs. That was crucial to getting support for the measure from downtown businesses.

“It’s not a problem for us as long as my beer reps and Sysco trucks can get into our back parking lot,” said Kevin Powell, general manager of McHale’s Irish Pub on East Main Street. “Those big semis shouldn’t be going downtown. Downtown should be nostalgic, somewhere you can walk with your kids going shopping without getting run over.”

Local trucking companies contacted by the Herald said the downtown ban wouldn’t affect their businesses, as all have a standing policy to avoid the business district whenever possible.

“We try to avoid it because it’s such a congested area,” said Missy Zimmer, office manager at TNT of York County on Albright Road. “We try to go around it on Anderson, Mount Gallant or (S.C.) 901.”

The ban will go into effect once the detour signs are put in place.

This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Rock Hill council expands downtown tractor-trailer truck ban."