Mayor Riley unveils Crosstown news: 'It will be fixed'

The final financial piece to the $154 million Septima P Clark Expressway drainage puzzle fell into place today.

The State Infrastructure Bank unanimously approved Charleston's application for $88 million to build a new drainage system underneath where U.S. Highway 17 cuts across the peninsular city, a road known locally as the Crosstown.

Mayor Joe Riley, who faced criticism during his last re-election bid that the city was too slow to solve the six-lane highway's longstanding flooding woes, trumpeted the news just hours after the bank's vote in Columbia.

"It will be fixed," he said. "The challenge of worrying about getting safely through the Crosstown when it rains eventually will be history."

The first phase of the construction has begun. The bank's vote essentially guarantees that later phases -- which involve a new series of tunnels 140 feet underground and a new pump station on the Ashley River -- will stay on track. All work is set to be done by 2020.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.