Residents express worries about road plan

The Post and Courier

Jim Strohm has lived in Colony North subdivision where Northside Drive dead ends since 1982.

That dead end will soon disappear.

Charleston County wants to extend Northside Drive to a new road, Future Drive, that will connect with U.S. Highway 78 and the proposed extension of Palmetto Commerce Parkway as part of a plan to alleviate traffic on Ladson, Dorchester and Ashley Phosphate roads. It will allow for new development in the 1,823-acre, undeveloped Ingleside Plantation tract at Interstate 26 and U.S. 78.

"It will become a cut-through, so traffic will increase on Northside Drive," said Strohm, who heads the Colony North Civic Association.

Strohm told Charleston County officials during a public hearing Tuesday on the $40 million project that he is concerned increased traffic, noise and construction vehicles will affect the subdivision that has been tucked away from major development since it was built nearly 40 years ago.

He wants berms or tree barriers added along Northside Drive to ease noise from the increased traffic. He asked that construction vehicles enter from Ladson Road for the project and not Northside Drive, which he believes will be torn up by heavy trucks.

He hopes the county will stick to requiring clustered plantings in medians with plant barriers on each side, underground utilities and sidewalks.

Strohm offered a possible fix to the increased traffic on Northside Drive's extension via an on-ramp to I-26 west of where Northside Drive stops.

Federal law requires all-way access at freeway intersections, said Tilley Bull, a design consultant with Davis & Floyd, which works with Charleston County Roadwise on the project.

While no plans are on the books, an elbow curve in Northside Drive Extension was made in case the county wanted to put an intersection at I-26 and Otranto Road in the future, said Gaynelle Whittle-Shipp, a Roadwise project manager.

One of the biggest concerns most residents had was that the new section of Northside Drive will have five lanes that will decrease to three lanes and then drop down to the two existing lanes at the subdivision.

Longtime Colony North resident Mary Champion-McCune and other residents said it will create a bottleneck that will block entry and exit for them.

The design is meant to encourage use of the new road toward U.S. 78 rather than toward Ashley Phosphate, said Gaye Sprague, a consulting engineer.

The new road projects will cut through the wooded and swampy Ingleside Plantation parcel, also known as the Weber tract. German businessman Albert Weber bought the land in 1997 and 2006 and plans to develop it with homes, apartments and businesses.

The roadwork, to be completed by 2011, will be funded through Charleston County's half-cent sales tax for transportation and green space that voters approved in 2004.

Roadwise officials accepted dozens of residents' comments and will use them to make any necessary adjustments, Whittle-Shipp said. They will accept written comments through July 22.

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or wwise@postandcourier.com.