S.C. 274, Pole Branch work continues ahead of Pennies 4

While Lake Wylie residents ready their cases for the latest round of road improvements, past projects are still a ways from completion.

Pennies for Progress, York County’s voter-approved cent sales tax for road improvements, is heading toward its fourth campaign. A vote is planned Nov. 7, 2017.

A campaign commission is meeting residents and municipal officials across the county for input on which projects should be included. The nearest meeting to Lake Wylie is 6 p.m. May 18 at the community center, 120 Bethel St., Clover.

At its most recent meeting in Rock Hill, the commission heard updates on past Pennies projects still underway or awaiting construction, including a big one in Lake Wylie. The S.C. 274 and Pole Branch Road widening in the 2011 Pennies campaign has an engineering firm, but no construction contract yet. The almost $26 million project groundbreaking is expected in summer 2017.

“We’re currently acquiring right-of-way with plans to go to construction next year,” said Patrick Hamilton, Pennies program manager.

Construction should be complete in 2020.

The nearly decade between voter approval and finished roadway is common, Hamilton said, due to the lengthy process with a host of issues from funding to right-of-way to needed state approvals.

“Seven to 10 years is not uncommon,” Hamilton said. “That’s not just the county. It’s the state. Seven years is not uncommon at all.”

Other, smaller projects are ongoing. A $500,000 intersection improvement at S.C. 49 and Campbell Road should begin construction this summer and finish this year.

A $6.5 million Paraham Road shoulder widening should begin construction this summer. An almost $850,000 improvement at Griggs Road, Bate Harvey Road and S.C. 557 is expected to start in fall. Both should be complete next year.

A $4.3 million multi-lane widening of S.C. 557 is estimated to be complete in 2020.

While there are concerns with how long new road projects take and cost overruns, elected and municipal officials countywide almost unanimously agree Pennies is a benefit to the county.

“Most people, like myself, never drove on these roads before and they don’t know what it was like,” Hamilton said.

By May 2017, a final list of projects will be complete. York County Council will have a final say on the list, and would have to approve or deny it together.

“They can’t pick and choose,” Hamilton said.

At the most recent Pennies 4 meeting, potential projects include intersection improvements or widening at S.C. 49 from Three Points to Buster Boyd Bridge.

“It certainly would be a good use of funds from our standpoint,” said David Hooper, director of the Fort Mill-Rock Hill Area Transportation Study.

RFATS allocates federal funding for the urbanized areas mainly of York County, including Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Lake Wylie and Indian Land. The S.C. 49 work was recommended among many from the RFATS study area, but was the only one in Lake Wylie. That stretch of road is the most pressing concern locally that isn’t already part of a past Pennies project.

RFATS looks at levels of service for roads, grading them similar to a school scale.

“In many ways we’re already at a level of service F now,” Hooper said.

Jerry Helms, chairman of the Pennies 4 commission who has worked on every campaign, said he didn’t need road planners to tell him S.C. 49 is a concern. Helms lives in Lake Wylie.

“I know, because I drive it every day,” Helms said.

Pennies 4 projects likely will be spread throughout York County. Most of the projects presented at the last commission meeting came from Rock Hill and Fort Mill. Pennies program can help alleviate traffic in high growth areas like Lake Wylie, but new roads also can be a sign of more traffic to come.

“To some extent, we control where growth is going to come by where we put these roads,” said York County Councilwoman Christi Cox.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "S.C. 274, Pole Branch work continues ahead of Pennies 4."