$7 Million Was Wasted On The Road To Nowhere

When I first heard about the proposed West Ashley Circle in 2014, it was promoted as a means to improve traffic flow along the intersection of Glenn McConnell Parkway and Bees Ferry Road, which is estimated to have up to 27,000 cars pass through each day. I pictured a “roundabout” like Park Circle in North Charleston, which allows drivers to access numerous intersections in the center of the city without traffic lights.
It turns out that the road is not a roundabout and does nothing to improve traffic flow. It actually slows traffic with two additional traffic lights. It does not connect surrounding neighborhoods as planners had promised. I call it the Road To Nowhere.
The road was built in wetlands and was paved in September 2015. The pavement likely led to increased runoff during the heavy rains in October 2015 and contributed to massive property damage in the Hickory Farms, Hickory Hills, and Shadowmoss neighborhoods.
Hickory Farms resident Rod Rutledge sent me a response statement produced by City of Charleston and Charleston County staff based on questions asked at Drayton Hall Elementary School Dec. 10, 2015. It took more than six months to respond to questions. Rutledge was displaced from his home for more than 7 months following the October flooding.
In the response, the county acknowledged that additional stormwater flowed into Hialeah Court in Hickory Farms based on a design flaw. Regardless of how the drainage piping was designed, how would anyone not expect more stormwater runoff when paving over wetlands?
My wife Robin and I moved out of Shadowmoss in 2005 after reading about development plans along Bees Ferry Road, knowing that paving over wetlands would create flooding problems. Wetlands soil is like a sponge that absorbs stormwater.
West Ashley Circle opened to traffic in April 2016 without extensive public announcements (I did not read or hear any). Shadowmoss resident Charlie Fowler told me that he and dozens of other drivers were unaware of the opening and were delayed by getting routed from Bees Ferry Road near the Walmart entrance back to a stretch of Bees Ferry Road near Winners Circle Drive, which they had already passed.
In the months since West Ashley Circle opened, the only media report on the problems with the road was filed on July 4 by WCIV reporter Bill Burr, who interviewed Holy City Inboards (a boat repair company) owner Scott Moody. Moody noted that he was happy about the Bees Ferry Road widening project but considered West Ashley Circle a $7 Million waste of money. He opined that the money would have been better spent maintaining roads or going toward the completion of I-526.
City of Charleston Planning Director Jacob Lindsey told Burr that West Ashley Circle was strategically built to help traffic flow. The reality is that the road does nothing to help people from the surrounding neighborhoods get to their destinations. It was clearly built to route people to a planned shopping center in a “mixed use” development with apartments.
There is genuine concern about the consequences of developing the area inside and outside of West Ashley Circle. After observing the site recently, I found it submerged in standing water. Any future development in the area will need to be reviewed by the City of Charleston Design Review Board and Technical Review Committee. It will have to meet the requirements of the Church Creek Special Stormwater Management Area and get permitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The response to the Dec. 2015 Church Creek Drainage Basin meeting indicated that the City of Charleston will provide regularly scheduled and frequent maintenance to the drainage system to remove obstructions and support stormwater flowing through the system. I see no evidence that this maintenance plan has been initiated yet. I have been calling for this since the Aug. 2015 flooding
I am extremely skeptical of any plans to develop the land along West Ashley Circle. I am convinced that paving over the wetlands there will cause more flooding in the surrounding neighborhoods. Citizens need to be vigilant. I think the City of Charleston should admit the project was a $7 Million mistake and use the road for passive recreation.
John Steinberger is the former chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, a leading Fair Tax advocate, and a West Ashley resident. He can be reached at John.steinberger@scfairtax.org.