Main Road Segment C faces trade-offs: stopping at Plowground eases tree impacts but would worsen 2045 traffic, county staff say

Alex Oziak, capital programs manager for Charleston County Public Works, told council members the Main Road Segment C project is being re-evaluated after mixed public comment, environmental concerns and funding pressures.

Oziak said the project team received “over 430 comments” during a public review and that roughly “a little less than 25” of those comments were in support of the project as presented, about 35% sought modifications and about 40% opposed it. Council had asked staff to look at stopping roadway widening and a multi-use path at Plowground to reduce impacts to private property and natural areas.

Staff found that stopping the roadway widening at Plowground would result in “a failing level of service at Edenvale” in the 2045 design year and more congestion on Bohicket Road between Plowground and River Road. Oziak said the team considered several fixes — shifting the multi-use path to the east side of Bohicket Road, reducing path width to the minimum allowed by DOT, and converting roundabout proposals to signals — but each option had trade-offs, including potential right-of-way acquisitions and additional impacts to Grand Live Oaks and other trees.

Oziak said design proposals initially identified about 67 Grand Live Oaks (graded C or better by an arborist assessment) that would be removed; stopping improvements at Plowground could reduce that number to about 25, but shifting the multi-use path or other adjustments could offset that reduction and leave roughly 60 tree impacts overall. He also said some parcels along the corridor are protected by conservation easements held by the Lowcountry Land Trust and that the proposed right-of-way line for Angel Oak parking relocation would cut through planned parking areas.

The presentation described funding effects from other projects: Main Road Segment A’s construction contract came in higher than the original estimate, Oziak said, and available funds were diverted to cover those overruns. He said the Segment A original construction estimate was about $195,000,000, the construction contract came in at about $350,000,000, and “overall project costs” were described in the presentation as approximately $4,400,000,000 (design, right-of-way, construction and inspection noted in the transcript). A failed 2024 transportation sales tax referendum removed an anticipated $282,000,000 in additional collections staff had planned to draw on.

Oziak said the county uses a pay-as-you-go approach tied to a 2016 sales tax and that extraordinary recent construction inflation — staff cited roughly a 58% increase in 2023–24 alone for some estimates — has strained budgets. He said staff plan to return to council at a March 6 meeting with more details on the sales tax program and proposed scope reductions.

Council members asked timing and level-of-service questions; Oziak said he did not have specific year-by-year service-failure tables in the presentation but that the 2045 design-year analysis showed failing conditions if improvements stop at Plowground. He reiterated that right-of-way impacts at the Maybank/Main intersection would be difficult to avoid without sacrificing traffic improvements.

Oziak concluded that while stopping at Plowground reduces some live-oak impacts and removes most impacts to several conservation easements, it would produce unacceptable traffic results in the design year and that funding shortfalls mean the county must consider scope reductions for remaining sales-tax projects.