As major York County road projects near completion, $400M of more improvements start soon
Some of the biggest road construction projects in York County will wrap up within months as crews set out to start on more than $400 million of new work.
Pennies for Progress is the 1-cent sales tax used for road construction. Voters get a new project list every seven years on a referendum ballot needed to continue the tax. Pennies has been in place since voters first opted for it, narrowly, in 1997. In November, York County voters passed the fifth Pennies campaign for $410.7 million.
Patrick Hamilton, Pennies program director, offered an update on when drivers can expect several ongoing projects to be finished, and when new ones will start.
Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Lake Wylie road construction
Some of the larger projects nearing completion include:
▪ S.C. 160 East in Fort Mill, bordering Lancaster County, is being widened to three lanes from Springfield Parkway to the county line. Construction is waiting on warmer weather. The $11.8 million project should be completed this summer.
▪ Riverview Road in Rock Hill has curbs and sidewalks installed almost to Cherry Road. On the other side of Cherry, installation of curbs and sidewalk should start in February. The project should be complete this year. The $25.2 million job will widen Riverview from Eden Terrace to Celanese Road.
▪ U.S. 21 and S.C. 51 clearing is complete in Fort Mill, near Carowinds. Utilities are being relocated. The county broke the project into two sections, with the first clearing the property so utilities could be moved. That work should be done this year, and a separate contract will go out this year for the road construction. The overall $85 million project will widen the two highways from Springfield Parkway to the North Carolina state line.
▪ S.C. 557 in Lake Wylie will become five lanes from Kingsburry Road to S.C. 49, with a new alignment and bridge. Crews should pour the bridge deck in February or March as storm drains and utilities are being installed. The $60.1 million project should be finished next year.
The project is attached to a three-lane S.C. 557 widening from S.C. 55 to Kingsburry. That $48.6 million project should be done in 2028.
▪ S.C. 72 will be widened to five lanes in some areas and three lanes in others. Rawlsville Road will be realigned as part of the Rock Hill project. Utilities are being relocated now. The $40.8 million project will widen S.C. 72 from S.C. 901 to Rambo Road. It should be finished next year.
Pennies 5 to start road construction
Hamilton is finalizing agreements now with the South Carolina Department of Transportation on resurfacing work from the November referendum. Of the more than $400 million in road projects, $80 million goes to repaving almost 80 miles of roadway countywide.
Those projects should go out for construction bids this spring, which would put road crews to work this summer, Hamilton said.
The work will start early due to a $20 million loan approved last week by York County Council. Pennies will pay it back from the tax revenue approved by voters. Collections don’t start until May and state government won’t cut the first check until the fall.
“We won’t get our first revenue check until probably late October, so that loan allows us to not have to wait a year to get any work done,” Hamilton said.
The county took a similar approach after the Pennies referendum in 2017. Until the COVID pandemic spiked construction costs, projects were coming in faster and at lower costs compared to budget of any Pennies campaign so far.
Last week’s loan comes from county reserve funding.
“It saves taxpayers a tremendous amount,” said York County Councilwoman Christi Cox.
Hamilton has approval from County Council to start on contracts for all Pennies 5 jobs. He’s negotiating scope and fees for them. Plenty of variables will determine which large projects make it to construction first.
“Size of the project, cash flow, where it is in the priority — we’ll have to evaluate all of those things,” Hamilton said. “But we at least want to start the design now.”
The large projects under construction now were approved by voters in 2011 or 2017. Pennies 5 projects are likely to take years, too. Of the more than $400 million campaign, more than half — $225 million — will go toward carryover projects that weren’t completed due to COVID cost increases.
Statewide, nine counties put a capital sales tax campaign on the ballot in November. Voters turned down five of them. York County, whose Pennies program was the first of its kind in South Carolina back in 1997, had the highest voter approval rate last fall at 71%.
For a full list of resurfacing and larger road projects, visit penniesforprogress.net.
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 11:46 AM.
