Indian Land intersection a growing puzzle for road planners

An Indian Land intersection has a congestion problem that typical fixes won’t solve, and area planners don’t think it’s the only one worth concern.

The Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study is, along with York County’s Pennies for Progress sales tax program, one of the largest local road funding sources. RFATS covers the two municipalities in its name along with Tega Cay, Indian Land and part of Lake Wylie. The group provides federal road money throughout that area.

On Friday afternoon, its policy committee took on the U.S. 521 and Marvin Road intersection. Marvin meets the main highway, with an entrance to an Aldi supermarket opposite it. That area already has hundreds and homes and businesses nearby with Bailes Ridge, Edgewater and Red Ventures.

More are coming.

“This area in particular has a lot going on right now,” said David Hooper, RFATS director.

More than 600 homes will be built near the intersection. So is a shopping center and a movie theater. A combined 281 acres are being developed for commercial and residential use. Rob Dubnicka with STV Inc. said the new uses will add a combined 5,500 more vehicle trips to the intersection daily.

“We’re talking about some pretty high numbers,” Dubnicka said. “We assume all of that will take place in five years.”

Road planners rate highways and intersections with a letter grade, based on congestion and other factors. The intersection has an “F.” Dubnicka outlined typical fixes for the type of intersection there, at estimates of $100,000 to $200,000. They wouldn’t raise the grade. A much larger and more expensive improvement was given, involving widening U.S. 521 to three lanes in each direction and adding turn lanes to the perpendicular roads.

The grade still wouldn’t improve.

“We would still have poor operation at that intersection,” Dubnicka said.

More troubling for planners is the idea there simply isn’t money for the large-scale fixes that still wouldn’t keep up with the demand, especially given so many other intersections in the RFATS area facing the same issues.

“What it’s taking to make a meaningful improvement to congestion is rising,” Hooper said. “The level of the changes that are needed to make a dent in congestion is changing.”

He crunches federal, state and local funding sources against anticipated needs.

“It is not sufficient to cover all the costs,” he said.

The next logical step, several RFATS policy committee members said Friday, is to ask more from the developers coming into their communities.

“We need to stiffen what the requirements are,” said Brian Carnes, Lancaster County Council member representing Indian Land.

U.S. 521 is the only direct route through the Indian Land for many people living or working there, he said. The county has worked to secure funds for schools and other public uses through development agreements. But those agreements haven’t solved the congestion issue.

“It’s not just that intersection,” Carnes said. “That’s just the choking point.”

The problem for municipal leaders is, if road costs are too high for federal and local sources, they will be high for any single developer, too. Municipalities can’t ask the next developer coming into a congested area to fix a much larger problem, caused by years of growth.

“That road was an ‘F’ when they showed up,” said Michael Johnson, York County Council member.

Yet, they say, more is needed from developers. Doug Echols, Rock Hill mayor, told the policy committee its various municipalities have little choice but to demand more buy-in from the developers contributing to such explosive community growth.

“Otherwise the whole system is going to be a red letter ‘F,’” he said.

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Indian Land intersection a growing puzzle for road planners."