How is road work in York County progressing? This is what drivers can expect.
September could be an important month for drivers on York County roads.
Patrick Hamilton, program manager for Pennies for Progress, told York County Council this week that several large projects will hit critical points.
Improvements at S.C. 160 West near Tega Cay are on track for completion in September. The traffic signal has been installed at S.C. 160 West and Zoar Road.
“It’s not operational yet,” Hamilton said. “It has to flash yellow for probably a week or two before it actually becomes active. That’ll probably be sometime in September when it gets closer to the project and all five lanes can be opened up to traffic.”
Change also comes in Lake Wylie, where work continues on widening of S.C. 274 and Pole Branch Road.
“The plan is to shift traffic on 274 onto the new bridge in September,” Hamilton said. “They’ll then come in and tear down the existing bridge and start building the rest of the widening bridge.”
Bridge work takes place near The Landing and Shoppes at the Landing. An entrance there to S.C. 274 will be closed for a while due to an elevation difference with the incoming bridge.
“They’re going to have to close that entrance and send everybody over to highway 49 while that work is being done,” Hamilton said.
Progress continues, he said, on the I-77 and Gold Hill Road intersection as it does on the new Barrett Connector Road near Clover Middle School and U.S. 321. The Barrett project, too, has a September milestone coming.
“We’re hoping to open that road up to the traffic hopefully by the end of the month or first of September,” Hamilton said.
Cars already use the new Anderson and Cowan Farm roads intersection in Rock Hill. The project took out two scissor intersections, one near the city operations center.
“The new traffic flow is active now,” Hamilton said. “The project is not complete. There’s still some paving and other items left to do.”
Substantial completion, he said, should come in September.
Road resurfacing
The Pennies 4 referendum in 2017 included $50 million for road resurfacing. There were 40 roads on the referendum listed for repair. So far, 38 have been bid for resurfacing.
One that hasn’t is Whites Road in Fort Mill, where a new middle school is under construction.
“We didn’t want to fix the road and then have a middle school built on it to tear it up again,” Hamilton said.
That project will go to bid this fall or winter, and will be done next year. The other road is a county road that public works will resurface in house, early next year.
“Those 38 roads that have been bid out are currently $5 million under what we budgeted for them,” Hamilton said.
That figure could be $6 million or $7 million when the work finishes, he said. All roads will be complete in 2021.
Resurfacing was the second highest priority listed on Pennies 4.
“Any money left on that project would trickle down to any other project that needs funding,” Hamilton said.
Coronavirus impact
The Pennies program, like many others, can trace a financial impact to COVID-19.
“We have seen a little bit of a decrease in our revenue,” Hamilton said.
Pennies is a 1% sales tax used to build, widen, repair or otherwise improve roads in the county. The check for February, March and April tax collections was down 4.2% from last year. That difference is $300,000 to $400,000.
Pennies 4, for comparison, was a ballot question at almost $278 million for 16 major projects.
“I was very surprised it was that little of a decrease,” Hamilton said of spring revenue.
The county was ahead in revenue prior to coronavirus. Hamilton said the check for summer months will come in October.
“Right now it’s full steam ahead,” he said.
Councilwoman Christi Cox referenced concern from prior Pennies campaigns where cost overruns resulted in unfinished projects that were pushed back. Cox sees optimism with work to date on Pennies 4.
“It looked as if everything was on budget and we’re going to get to all our projects,” she said. “I know that was the concern on Pennies 4.”
Hamilton said there still are large projects remaining that could sway the bottom line.
“Some will be over, some will be under,” Hamilton said. “The big ones like Cel-River and U.S. 21 — the $30 and $40 million projects — those are the ones we’re really keeping our eye on.”
Some larger projects will bid this fall. Then it will be evident if there are construction cost changes, Hamilton said.
A separate C-Funds program allocates state money for some projects in York County. Pennies is in better financial shape than C-Funds, related to coronavirus.
“On the C-Funds there has been a noticeable decrease,” Hamilton said, at close to 40%. “Obviously that’s tied to the gas tax. People were at home for two months and nobody’s driving, there’s no gas being bought.”
The cent sales tax for Pennies has fared better thus far.
“People are still going to Walmart,” Hamilton said. “People are buying toilet paper. People are still buying stuff, so that didn’t hurt us as bad.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
