WHITMIRE — Beginning in 2022, residents in Whitmire will be seeking alternate routes as the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) works to replace the bridge (built in 1935) on S.C. 72 (Church Street) over the CSX Railroad.
A public meeting was held by the SCDOT to provide the community with an opportunity to view and comment on the proposed alternative.
“We like to come to the public with the one we are proposing, display that and get feedback and comments from the public to help us in making our decisions and finalizing the design,” said C.T. York, P.E., assistant program manager for the Upstate Regional Production Group (RPG).
Additionally, York said the purpose of the meeting was to give the public details about the project schedule and display graphics to allow them to see the proposed plans first-hand.
During the meeting, three identical stations were set up for viewing: an aerial display showing the bridge site and project limits; a detour map; and a display for the typical sections — essentially a street view of what someone would see traveling down the roadway and for the bridge which has reached the end of its useful life.
Detours are to be expected during the time of construction, which is scheduled to begin in 2022 and last between 12-18 months. York said they are actively working with fire, emergency and law enforcement to coordinate responses.
“Right now, it’s looking like there’s going to be one side of the railroad tracks set up for one station. The other side will be set up for the other station that way, if there’s a train and you can’t get through the cross, the right side will be able to respond,” he said.
While construction will not begin until 2022, the right-of-way phase will begin in 2021 — the project is currently in the preliminary engineering (P.E.) phase.
“Once we finish that up, we decide on a final plan, go to the right-of-way phase (usually takes about 12 months or so) and after that we’ll go to the construction phase (about 12-18 months),” York said.
As for how much the project will cost, York said they are still formulating the preliminary estimates, but the project may cost somewhere around three million dollars.
“It’s really too early to tell just because we haven’t even created a final set of right-of-way plans. We’re still in the conceptual phase so any estimate we have at this point is really rough and very likely to change,” he said.
From what he has heard from the public, York said he’s received a mixed bag of comments — some who are excited about the bridge and others who are worried about road closures.
“Some people are excited to get a new bridge and to have something a little newer. People’s intentions are focused more on the road closures just because that’s something new they’ll have to learn — different routes around town. Each road we’re closing, there’s just as good access elsewhere so we’re really not preventing anybody from doing something they want to do,” he said. “If they want to get someplace there is plenty of access for them to be able to do that. Other than that, we haven’t really had a lot of comments sway one way or the other. With these bridge replacements it’s usually not as bad as an intersection improvement.”
He added that the bridge has reached the end of its life, but wants the public to know that the concept is only proposed.
“It’s not set in stone. We’re here to get comments from everybody so we can hear from the folks who live here and travel through town because of course we don’t. We work in Columbia and around the state, so we’re here to hear from the people who travel these routes daily and the ones who will be experiencing the delays during construction,” he said.
