Where are York County’s worst intersections? What’s being done to fix them?

At least $50 million will be spent over the next few years to make more than a dozen intersections in York County safer and less congested. The project list includes some of the county’s most jammed crossroads – the busiest of which sees more than 46,000 cars each day.

The Herald recently compiled traffic and accident statistics, interviewed local police officials and transportation planners, and analyzed upcoming road project plans to find York County’s problem intersections and learn how government agencies hope to address safety and efficiency issues.

The money for intersections – mostly targeted for roads with the highest traffic loads – is just one portion of hundreds of millions of dollars set aside to address future transportation needs as commercial and residential development puts new demands on main roads already overwhelmed by commuters.

York County’s most-pressing road needs are, not surprisingly, near Interstate 77 exits in Rock Hill and Fort Mill. Many of the busiest and most accident-prone intersections are found near employment and retail/entertainment centers.

On Dave Lyle Boulevard – a busy shopping, restaurant, and residential stretch of state highway – work crews are nearing completion of a $1.5 million project aimed at making the I-77 interchange area and a signaled intersection at Chamberside Drive safer. A similar project to add turn lanes for traffic moving toward and away from the interstate is planned for Celanese Road and its interchange area around Riverview Road and Riverchase Boulevard.

Larry Boyd, who lives in Sturgis Estates near the Dave Lyle Boulevard project area, hopes the improvements will reduce local traffic hazards.

Currently, southbound drivers who exit I-77 and head west on Dave Lyle Boulevard must quickly merge and then cross two lanes of traffic to make a left turn at Chamberside Drive, which links the main thoroughfare to restaurants, several large retail stores and neighborhoods.

At times, Boyd said, he has been so frustrated with traffic on the I-77 south exit ramp and oncoming Dave Lyle Boulevard traffic approaching Chamberside Drive, that he drives past that first intersection to the next traffic signal – at John Ross Parkway – to make a safer turn.

Drivers unfamiliar with Rock Hill, he said, are likely more confused and more at risk on the road during peak traffic hours than residents and shoppers who regularly use the Dave Lyle Boulevard/I-77 interchange area.

Since he moved to Rock Hill in 1997, Boyd said, the business area has grown rapidly, making it difficult for local transportation planners to keep up with traffic demands. Around Christmas, Dave Lyle Boulevard gets even busier as visitors and residents frequent the retail businesses.

“At times, it can be a nightmare,” Boyd said, describing the city of Rock Hill as almost “a mini-Charlotte.”

Officials who help set transportation spending priorities are hoping to stay ahead of road needs as the county’s population is projected to continue rapid growth.

York and Lancaster counties have seen more growth recently than any other area across the Charlotte-metro region, said David Hooper, administrator for “RFATS,” the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study.

RFATS is one of several local agencies tackling York County’s intersection improvement needs. Others include Pennies for Progress, the county’s road-building program paid for by a penny sales tax; the state Department of Transportation; and cities and towns, which often provide matching dollars for projects funded by federal or state grants.

Hooper works with towns and cities inside York County and in the panhandle of Lancaster County, which includes the booming area of Indian Land between Fort Mill and the state line. RFATS also coordinates project funding with state and federal transportation agencies.

The agency uses a complex travel demand “modeling” tool to track growth, keep up with traffic counts, and measure road capacity on the area’s most important thoroughfares. That data helps state and local officials chose which projects to spend money on first.

Plans call for significant improvement projects at York County’s three busiest junctions, the intersections of:

▪ Pleasant Road and U.S. 21 at Carowinds Boulevard near Fort Mill

▪ I-77, Riverview Road and Riverchase Boulevard at Celanese Road in Rock Hill

▪ India Hook and Celanese roads

Several other road projects are planned at busy and confusing intersections in York and the Clover/Lake Wylie area.

To predict future road needs, RFATS also studies traffic and development growth in surrounding counties, including those in North Carolina, Hooper said. He and others want to approach transportation planning in a “holistic way,” he said, because problems usually exist across a network of roads, often making piecemeal solutions less effective.

RFATS is responsible for making long-term transportation plans for the county’s urbanized, most-populated areas. The comprehensive plan is updated about every four years.

Much of RFATS’ work focuses on reducing traffic congestion, which affects the area’s air quality. Some of the money York County gets from the federal government to pay for road projects stems from efforts to relieve congestion and improve air quality.

Drivers sometimes measure congestion in terms of how long they wait at a light, how slow traffic moves through an area, or how full intersections are. Hooper’s group recently quantified driver’s frustrations with congestion by determining the “level of service” at bustling junctions across the county.

The level of service rating “tells you how things are working,” he said.

The congestion study rates intersections with an A through F. An “F” doesn’t mean failing, Hooper said, but it does signal that an intersection has great challenges.

The busiest transportation cluster in York County – U.S. 21 and Pleasant Road intersections with Carowinds Boulevard near Fort Mill – gets an “E” and “F,” meaning there are extended traffic delays at various locations during peak travel hours. During off-peak hours, the area generally operates at a “C” rating, meaning intersections are functional but still congested, Hooper said.

With more than 46,000 drivers passing through each day, Carowinds Boulevard near I-77 is the most hectic area for York County traffic, as well as commuters from North Carolina who live or work across the state line.

York County’s elected councils and transportation employees often get an earful from residents upset about roads with potholes, neighborhoods plagued by cut-through traffic, and intersections so clogged that drivers must wait several traffic light cycles before seeing green.

Local groups work to objectively rank current road project needs and plan for the next 20 years – not just the short-term, Hooper said. The scope of work is wide and the money to fix roads is limited, he said, but complaints and concerns are heard.

“We get in cars like everyone else,” he said, “and we sit in that congestion like everyone else.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Where are York County’s worst intersections? What’s being done to fix them?."