Chimney Sweep in West Ashley, SC

There was a bad wreck on Johns Island in January, and West Ashley felt it for hours.

That mid-afternoon crash gridlocked traffic across Charleston’s largest suburb well beyond rush hour. Main roads and side streets were snarled past dark as people looked for a way home.

Because of an accident on the other side of the Stono River.

It’s happened before — once a Johns Island accident brought traffic to a standstill as far away as North Charleston for an entire afternoon. That happens in communities bisected by water with few bridges.

After the January incident, people once again called for traffic relief. It's a call that will go unanswered.

As The Post and Courier’s Ali Rockett reports, the S.C. Department of Transportation plans to upgrade some of the busiest parts of Savannah Highway and St. Andrews Boulevard (aka Ashley River Road or S.C. Highway 61).

But these upgrades will not unclog West Ashley's two major arteries.

“The point of this project is not for traffic congestion," DOT traffic engineer Josh Johnson says. “But it should make travel more reliable.”

Until, you know, somebody has a wreck seven or eight miles away.

Now, don’t blame DOT — it's doing what it can. Which isn’t much.

Savannah Highway and Highway 61 are way over-capacity for two reasons. Builders are throwing up more and more houses in outer West Ashley ... all the way to Ravenel.

More houses, more people. More cars.

Meanwhile, Johns Island has grown 150% in the past decade, and those folks have no other route to their jobs downtown and in North Charleston ... other than cutting through West Ashley.

That’s why Savannah Highway and 61 are overcrowded, and they can’t be improved much. The logistics, politics, right of way costs and disruption to existing homes and businesses make that practically impossible.

We’d have flying cars before all that, which is why even the most optimistic (or naïve) public official never suggests it.

All the transportation officials can do is try to make the roads less chaotic. So they're installing medians and making left-hand turns impossible. Which they did a few years back on Mount Pleasant's Coleman Boulevard.

Ask folks in East Cooper how they like it. Spoiler: They really, really don’t.

Johnson says the plan is to keep traffic flowing and eliminate wild west turning lanes where a lot of wrecks happen.

This means if you're headed home from downtown to Shadowmoss, you can't turn into Home Team BBQ, pick up food and be on your way.

You’ll have to go down to a designated left-hand turn lane, find a way to make a U-turn and repeat the process when you leave the restaurant.

Yeah. Angry West Ashley residents have already started a petition on change.org. Businesses justifiably fear this will lead to customers simply passing them by.

“These roads need to be wider or have dedicated turning/passing lanes, NOT concrete barriers blocking turning at all," one wrote.

This “would turn 61 into a raceway, just like the Crosstown," another resident notes. "Traffic would build up even worse with U-turn movements at lights where pavement radii are reduced to make the necessary movements.”

Fair points. But this is the future, West Ashley, and all the community meetings in the world won't change that. Because there aren't any other options.

The state and county's plan to ease congestion on those roads was to give drivers another route. But voters soundly rejected extending Interstate 526, which would've kept 20,000 cars a day off Savannah Highway.

For once, the politicians listened and abandoned the idea. But when they promise to "find other ways," be skeptical.

As DOT officials told me last summer, West Ashley doesn't get fixed with bike lanes and public transit. It needs roads, and there are no virgin swaths of land in West Ashley to build new, less expensive ones.

So, you get safety upgrades to keep traffic moving and not turning.

Now, the mobility crowd loves this. The current 61 bike lane is about as safe as passage on the Titanic, and presumably the Transportation Department will make it safer ... and improve crosswalks.

But that's about it. No magic bullets. It can tinker with intersections and signal times, but it can't lower traffic counts without alternative routes.

So, if you want to avoid the maddening congestion of West Ashley, take the Greenway. Of course, many people already complain that's a bad idea. Who's going to walk (or bike) to work in the Lowcountry heat?

Not many, based on today's numbers. But this is what the future (and alleged consensus) looks like. So look at the bright side:

When there’s a fender bender on Johns Island, walking six miles down Savannah Highway will probably be faster than driving it.

Brian Hicks is The Post and Courier's metro columnist. Reach him at bhicks@postandcourier.com.

Charleston County is set to begin construction on a project that will alleviate traffic for West Ashley and Johns Island residents, officials told residents at the first quarterly update meeting for the road improvements March 13.

The project encompasses a number of improvements to help with traffic including construction of flyovers at the intersection of Main Road and U.S. Highway 17, an interchange at Main Road and Highway 17 for drivers who want to avoid the intersection, a bridge over CSX Railroad, a roundabout at the intersection of Main, Chisholm and River roads, and a widening of Main Road from River and Chisholm roads to the interchange ramps.

The improvements were originally part of a bigger project for Main Road, from Bees Ferry Road to Betsy Kerrison Parkway. The project was then split into three segments, with this segment first estimated to cost $130 million in 2020.

This now $354 million project — the largest infrastructure project in Charleston County history — is funded by the 2016 half-cent transportation sales tax.

Herb Nimz, county project manager, said during the county's quarterly project meeting on March 13 that they're still in the permitting process, but have worked on securing right-of-way acquisition. They're also currently doing test piles, or assessing the strength and stability of the columns that will support the interchange and flyovers. Plans are in the works to relocate utilities, like Charleston Water System and Dominion Energy, before construction starts in May, he said.

Most of the road work on Main Road and Highway 17 will take place at night, but residents should still expect some backup during construction, Nimz said.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," Nimz said.

Residents in West Ashley and on Johns Island who live around the roads slated for changes have mixed feelings.

Jacob Andrew, a Johns Island resident, said he's excited about how the road project will help with traffic.

"It’s going to work," he said. "They could get it 50 percent right, and it would be better than the way it is now."

However, he worries about how traffic volume will only continue to increase around where he lives off Main Road as more people continue to move to the Lowcountry.

Census data shows the population of Johns Island's specifically surged from roughly 15,100 people in 2010 to almost 22,900 in 2021. More than 25,000 people are estimated to live on the island today.

The county will most likely be back to the drawing board in 10 years to come up with another solution, Andrew said.

Andrew is also unhappy the county cut plans for a bike and pedestrian bridge adjacent to the Limehouse Bridge that was previously included in the project. Nimz said he's met with the state Department of Transportation and is working to add at least a sidewalk to the bridge.

West Ashley resident Jamie Jacobs is looking forward to the changes, but worries congestion may remain as Main Road and Highway 17 are highly trafficked roads for people coming from West Ashley, Ravenel and Johns Island.

Ultimately, she said if the flyovers and interchange allow for commuters to no longer wait at the red light at the intersection of Main Road and Highway 17 for an hour, residents will be much happier.

Officials expect the project to be complete late September 2028.