Coming Full Circle

After years of hearings, criticism, and praise, planning and recasting, work on the West Ashley Traffic Circle was scheduled to begin this past Monday.
Located at the intersection of Bees Ferry Road and Glenn McConnell Parkway, one-fourth of the circle is already in place, linking the Wal-Mart to the two main roads.
County officials estimate the project, budgeted at $7 million, will be completed by September of 2015. But that may be optimistic, as the county’s Bees Ferry widening project, slated to be finished in April, is still underway.
Money for the West Ashley Circle project comes from the county’s special half-cent transportation sales tax fund.
Officials and engineers expect for there to be little interruption to traffic at the intersection, as much of the remaining work will be located in a woods north of the current intersection.
County spokesperson Shawn Smetana said that lane closures will be kept to a minimum by construction crews toiling through the night when traffic loads are at their lightest.
The result, physically, will be a widened and enhanced four-lane Bees Ferry Road, replete with a landscaped median. An 8-foot sidewalk will be installed around the circle, and will be linked to new sidewalks constructed during the widening project.
Pedestrian stoplights and enhanced crossings will also be installed, as the county expects the circle to benefit from infill business, work-force housing and other residential and commercial uses.
While the relatively rural location of the circle seems to fly in the face of Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr.’s affinity for dense urban design, support for the circle extends into City Hall.
One Riley staffer speaking anonymously said the circle is a wonderful alternative to what the county could have built there — a simple, generic “flyover” with clover-leafs.
County Councilmember Colleen Condon, who represents West Ashley, said that the circle would become “a vibrant, new center” for a burgeoning part of the county “for generations to come.”
As stalled development out Highway 61 resumes with vigor, and as housing and development take off east to Edisto on Highway 17, Condon sees the circle as more of a bulls-eye on a target.
“This used to be a part of the county where I felt like if I was headed out to, I’d better pack a lunch,” said Condon. “Now, it feels like it’s going to be the center of something big.”
She foresees a future where not only stores and apartments take root in the circle, but where county services, like libraries, could find a home and serve more and more of the region.
City Councilman Bill Moody, who also represents parts of West Ashley, cheers how the circle will improve that end of the city by helping drivers “miss” the center.
Currently, Moody says that when he drives out that way, all the other vehicles come to the same center point — the traffic lights at Glenn McConnell and Bees Ferry.
And, depending on traffic, he has to wait several lights before he can make a simple right turn. With the circle, traffic loads will be siphoned off at one of several exits along the circle, easing traffic pains.
“It’s an attempt to get some of the vehicles to disperse, and not hit the same center spot at the same moment,” said Moody, who likes the ideas of drivers getting halfway around the circle before the specter of a stoplight looms.
“I would have hated to see a big ol’ interchange there, like they got at Coleman Boulevard in Mt. Pleasant — you know an overpass with streets feeding out everywhere,” said Moody.