It’s one of Fort Mill’s most talked about road problems. York County wants to address it
Area officials have heard plenty from the driving public on a busy stretch of Fort Mill highway, but they want to hear more.
A drop-in public meeting June 7 will provide information on coming work at Fort Mill Parkway, Sutton Road and Spratt Street. York County’s one-cent sales tax program, Pennies for Progress, will pay for the widening of a two-mile stretch to five lanes from the east side of I-77 to a railroad bridge near US Foods.
The 5-6:30 p.m. meeting will be held at Riverview Elementary School, at 1300 Spratt St. just off of the project site. Displays and experts to answer questions will be on hand.
The area up for improvement sees about 19,000 vehicles daily. There are new large neighborhoods, like Elizabeth under construction now with approval for more than 1,000 homes and townhomes. Catawba Ridge High School, Banks Trail and Forest Creek middle schools and both Riverview and River Trail elementary schools opened within the project area or just outside it since Fort Mill Parkway — another Pennies effort — opened and routed traffic around town.
“Once the bypass opened all the schools, commercial development, traffic has only compounded year after year, so this is a much-needed project,” said Pennies program manager Patrick Hamilton.
The need to widen the bypass and improve its intersection at Spratt Street near U.S. 21 has been a consistent message to Fort Mill elected officials. Mayor Guynn Savage brought up those concerns several times when the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study policy committee met.
“I get complaints daily,” Savage told that group in late April.
Ahead of the next Pennies vote, the latest on how York County road work is going now
The intersection near the Riverview school, where the bypass hits U.S. 21 in front of the town wastewater plant, was recently reconfigured. The project largely hasn’t stopped traffic backups there during rush hours. Hamilton said recently that reconfiguration didn’t add the vehicle capacity the full road widening will, so conditions will improve.
The coming road widening is part of a 2017 Pennies referendum project. Pennies has another vote expected next year on whether to fund a new seven-year set of road needs through a cent sales tax. A citizen committee is meeting across the county now to come up with a potential road list.
What’s known now as group decides how York County’s future road money might be spent
Pennies, run through the county, is acquiring right-of-way now for the widening project at Fort Mill Parkway, Sutton and Spratt. That project could take 18 months or more. Construction should start in 2025.
While the intersection reconfiguration already switched traffic to its new route, there remains work as part of that project which officially should be complete this summer.
Has the big road upgrade in Fort Mill improved your drive? If not, just wait
