Money secured for Tega Cay sidewalks, shortcut | The Herald

The side of Tega Cay Drive unfriendly to pedestrian traffic won't be that way for long, thanks to $400,000 in federal stimulus money.

Another federal windfall separate from the stimulus fund will finance the long awaited Hubert Graham Way road project.

The stimulus money will be used to construct a combined sidewalk and walking trail from Gold Hill Road at First Properties of The Carolinas to Watertrace Drive and Turner Athletic Field, City Manager Grant Duffield said.

"There is no sidewalk or walking trail on that side of Tega Cay Drive," Duffield said. "Yet, we have many homes on that section of Tega Cay Drive where we have no pedestrian access."

An existing sidewalk ends at First Properties, he said. The $400,000 will extend that sidewalk by nearly 3,200 feet, Duffield said.

"It will give access along Gold Hill Road and provide further access down Hwy. 160 to the Gold Hill schools," Duffield said.

Work is slated to begin within 60 days and take approximately that long to complete, Duffield said.

"It will help many residents of Tega Cay by providing pedestrian access to Turner Field as well as shopping and other resources on Hwy. 160," he said.

Federal funds for corridor

Tega Cay also will receive nearly three quarters of a million dollars to help complete work on Hubert Graham Way, thanks to U.S. Rep. John Spratt, according to a press release from his office.

Spratt was able to obtain $712,500 in the new the omnibus spending bill to help York County pay for the new road.

"This project will provide better access to Interstate 77 and go a long way to ensuring that this area of the county continues to grow," Spratt said in the release.

Tega Cay officials expect to receive the money by July 1, Duffield said. Work is expected to kick off in 90 days, and construction is slated to take up to a year, he said.

Originally, the county-run Pennies for Progress program provided $1.3 million of the total $2.2 million required for the Hubert Graham Way project. That left a shortfall of about $900,000 to be offset by the $712,500, Duffield said.

The balance will come from the Stonecrest developer as an obligation to help with the connector road, he said.

"It will create an additional corridor through which our emergency response and law enforcement personnel can more efficiently serve the Stonecrest and Lake Ridge neighborhoods," Duffield said.

"When dispatched, they travel up Gold Hill Road, turn right onto [HWY.] 160 and cut back down to Stonecrest and Lake Ridge."

That route takes emergency response and law enforcement personnel out of their way and also slows their response time, he said.

"Their current route takes them a little over two miles to reach the Stonecrest development," Duffield said. "This new corridor will require them to travel only half a mile."

The corridor will include a pedestrian walkway, two travel lanes, a curb and gutter.

It will extend from the existing Hubert Graham Way in the Stonecrest Development to Gold Hill Road at Deer Creek Road.