Fort Mill leaders have a new list of traffic trouble spots. How do they pay for fixes?
Fort Mill officials know where their biggest traffic choke-points are. When improvements may come is an unanswered question.
A new list of road widening and intersection improvement needs just went from town planners to one group that could do something about them, the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study. RFATS allocates federal transportation money in Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie and Indian Land.
The group asked for an update from those areas on which large projects need work first. Fort Mill planners submitted a list with a common theme — get traffic around the downtown area.
The top road widening need, town planners say, is U.S. 21, from its Sutton Road and Spratt Street intersection to Springfield Parkway. That stretch is parallel to I-77 and connects the Fort Mill Parkway turnoff toward Rock Hill to parts of the Anne Springs Close Greenway near the Carowinds corridor.
Gold Hill Road and Springfield Parkway, from I-77 to S.C. 160, is second on the list.
Third was Fort Mill Parkway from U.S. 21 to Holbrook Road, followed by Fort Mill Parkway from Holbrook to S.C. 160 at No. 4. The fifth spot went to Sutton Road from Sixth Baxter Crossing to U.S. 21.
“These are just sort of like a loop, to pass improvements for people to be able to get back onto I-77 through our town,” said Penelope Karagounis, town planning director.
Town planners also prioritized intersection improvements.
The top need there is S.C. 160 at North Dobys Bridge Road, Steele and Banks streets. Multiple smaller intersections there connect downtown Fort Mill to major routes to Lancaster County. The area has several new home subdivisions and a growing commercial base, including the Walmart Neighborhbood Market just off the S.C. 160 and North Dobys intersection.
At No. 2 is S.C. 160 at Springfield Parkway, just down the road from the top need. North Dobys appears again at No. 3 with its intersections with Nims Lake and Williams roads, and at No. 4 where it meets Dobys Bridge Park. At No. 5 is the Old Nation Road and North White Street intersection in front of Elisha Park.
“All of these are just congestion and safety issue concerns,” Karagounis said.
Long range road plan
The list developed by the town planning department, shared Monday night with Fort Mill Town Council, includes unfunded projects. RFATS updates its long-range plan every seven years. The RFATS policy committee will review and discuss those lists from area municipalities in October.
Mayor Guynn Savage is the current chairwoman of the policy committee.
“This list is so long-running,” Savage said. “Long-range planning for RFATS can be 30, 40 years. So many of the projects that aren’t addressed just simply move forward, and are adjusted based on traffic counts, accident counts, reports by the municipalities, DOT counts. There’s a lot of information that goes into what’s selected on that list.”
RFATS isn’t the only funding source. There also is the cent sales tax in York County Pennies for Progress. Federal air quality grants can fund projects, as can the South Carolina Department of Transportation or other sources.
Some projects, like Fort Mill Parkway and U.S. 21 widening, already are part of the Pennies plans. Putting projects on the RFATS list can allow other funding streams, or can identify longer stretches of road in need of improvement than is planned already.
Some projects — I-77 and S.C. 160 is one — are larger scale than the town would submit or are already in plan or construction phases with another agency.
Town leaders agree there are more road needs than they could fit in a top five or 10 list. Councilwoman Lisa Cook said she doesn’t disagree with the needs list, but also sees issues in places like S.C. 160 near the Lancaster County line where work continues to widen the highway in that neighboring county.
“You’re going to have four-lane roads all the way up to the bridge and then it comes to two lanes when it comes up by the intersection there at Hensley Road, (which) is already a nightmare,” Cook said.
Savage said the Fort Mill side there likely won’t be up for widening soon.
“It’s way out because of bridge replacement being amazingly expensive,” she said. “And that one is not that old.”
Traffic impact analysis
Another way some road improvements happen is when land developers pay for them. Fort Mill requires large developments to perform a traffic impact analysis. Developers are responsible for improvements when the expected traffic they’ll add is high.
Yet with COVID-19, a traffic analysis isn’t easy.
“Part of the way to do a TIA, you need to get traffic counts,” Karagounis said. “And school needs to be in session.”
School shut down in March due to coronavirus. It’s back now, but at lower capacity with virtual learning.
“It’s unfair to require someone to get a TIA based on no information,” Savage said. “They’d never get approval.”
Fort Mill planners have spoken with York County and SCDOT about a temporary plan that would allow traffic counts up to five years old, with a case-by-case growth rate factored into the numbers. If there hasn’t been a study done within five years, a new count can happen with a 12% growth rate added.
“This new policy is just for the time being,” Karagounis.
Without some sort of temporary arrangement for COVID-19, abnormally low traffic counts would allow developers to submit projects without traffic improvements. Or, they wouldn’t be able to do a proper study, which could mean gridlock in developments.
