Opinion: Costly bridge across Catawba is not the right traffic solution

An old, discarded plan to build another bridge over the Catawba River to connect the Celanese Road area of Rock Hill to Fort Mill at Sutton Road has been revived. Last month, the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study policy committee voted to study multiple transportation options rather than simply update a bridge feasibility study.

That doesn’t mean the bridge, a boondoggle in the making at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, won’t be built, but at least planners have put the brakes on the idea. In time, we hope they realize funneling traffic from heavily congested Celanese Road will ease conditions on that side of the river at the expense of residents and travelers on the opposite shore. Sutton Road, a corridor through Baxter to S.C. 160 that connects to Tega Cay, already has more than enough traffic, especially near Love’s truck stop and the new Mason’s Bend community.

Recently, local officials opposed to the project went on record with solid arguments against a new bridge. We applaud their candor and willingness to stick up for residents who would be negatively impacted by a new bridge.

Fort Mill Town Councilman Larry Huntley, for example, said it would make more sense for Rock Hill to acquire the rights of way along Celanese to widen that road and ease traffic. “You might have to buy a restaurant and a couple of service stations,” he said, “but that’s a whole lot cheaper than buying a bridge.”

Fellow Councilman Chris Moody said, “Spending $100 million on a bridge does not fix the problem. Rather it moves the problem from Rock Hill onto Sutton Road. By doing this, small businesses (in Fort Mill) would be shuttered, families would lose their homes, and Fort Mill would bear the burden of even more traffic. It is a relief knowing the policy committee is open to alternative studies to fix a rather complex issue.”

Former Councilman and town planning commission member Tom Adams said money that could be used throughout the RFATS area would be tied to the project, which wouldn’t help residents on both sides of the new bridge. Tom Spratt, also a former councilman in Fort Mill, told the RFATS committee funds are needed throughout its area, which includes Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, and unincorporated York County including fast-growing Lake Wylie and Indian Land communities. Pouring all the available money into the bridge would shortchange the other communities with transportation needs.

York County Councilman and committee member Michael Johnson said a bridge study would need to account for its traffic impact not just to Celanese Road, but to U.S. 21, S.C. 160, Gold Hill and Pleasant roads, among others. Johnson said he has a daughter born when the bridge discussion came up in 2002, and now she is old enough to drive him to dinner. His point is that plenty has changed since then and planners need to look at the bigger picture that has emerged.

Tega Cay Mayor and committee member George Sheppard has a more fundamental question: Does RFATS operate efficiently? He asked for a review of what it would take to run the organization out of a larger planning organization, like the state Department of Transportation or Catawba Regional Council of Governments, rather than the planning department in Rock Hill.

Rock Hill Mayor and committee chairman Doug Echols said even though Celanese traffic is a top issue for his city, he isn’t opposed to a wider study. We appreciate that. We also have plenty of empathy for Rock Hill’s traffic problems. But we have plenty of our own on this side of the river and any plan that would make congestion here worse needs to be stopped in its tracks.

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Opinion: Costly bridge across Catawba is not the right traffic solution."