South Strand gearing up for heavy construction season

Mention Glenns Bay Road, S.C. 707, Enterprise Road or the new light at Coventry Boulevard just south of the new back gate bridge, and you’re likely to get a cringe from commuters who live or do business in the South Strand area.

The South Strand strangle of road construction projects will continue through 2017.

Al Jordan, president of the Greater Burgess Community Association, said there’s “quite a lot” of buzz about transportation among the people he talks to and those who are part of the association.

“I do get the feeling that most people have an understanding about the projects underway and that the orange barrels are going to be a nuisance, but it’s something they expected and understand that there’s no magical way to widen a road without construction issues,” Jordan said.

What’s going on is a collection of road construction projects on the south end.

One of the projects is the widening of S.C. 707, which has had preliminary work done since last summer. Actual construction of the road should start by the summer, according to S.C. Department of Transportation officials.

Plans call for widening S.C. 707 from a two-lane shoulder section to a five-lane curb and gutter road. It will stretch a little more than 9 miles from just south of Enterprise Road to the Horry/Georgetown county line. The project’s targeted completion date is in August 2017.

At Glenns Bay Road and U.S. 17 Bypass, a $46.3 million project calls for a bridge to be built at the intersection to alleviate traffic congestion. It also includes the widening of Glenns Bay to Spanish Oak Drive to a five-lane highway. From Spanish Oak, the road will narrow to four lanes to the entrance of Surfside Beach Club before turning to three lanes as it reaches U.S. 17 Business.

By this spring, SCDOT hopes to have the utilities relocated, and by spring and summer of 2016, the north- and southbound bypass ramps around the intersection will be built.

That project is also scheduled to be completed by 2017.

Finally, a third major project is the $237 million extension of S.C. 31 to about S.C. 707. The nearly four-mile extension will be a multi-lane highway that includes a bridge over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Construction is slated to be completed by the spring of 2017. Crews will work throughout the year on various phases of the project, including the closing of Enterprise Road near the start of 2016.

Jordan said the areas of construction are rather well traveled.

“If you were on Highway 17 Bypass and you were coming through our community going northbound, when you stop at the light at Glenns Bay/Holmestown Road, sometimes you have to wait through two or three lights,” Jordan said. “The traffic stretches way back there. Hopefully in 2017 that’ll be taken care.”

Lisa Bourcier, spokeswoman for Horry County, said the county isn’t too worried about more delays than what is already experienced.

“I don’t think traffic will be any worse than what it currently is because we’re keeping those access roads open during the day in the current traffic pattern that it’s in,” Bourcier said. “It’s just more to look at.”

Jordan said the road projects can be a catch 22.

“I think people are grateful that the projects that are finally underway, so I think they appreciate that,” Jordan said. “It’s human nature to wish somebody would widen the road and then complain about construction.”

Bourcier said the area has gone through construction of a bridge at U.S. 17 Bypass and S.C. 707, so the future projects on the south end shouldn’t be anything unfamiliar to local drivers.

“We lived through the back gate and I think it was a pretty successful project,” Bourcier said. I don’t see any one of these being any more difficult as the back gate part of it.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 4:20 PM with the headline "South Strand gearing up for heavy construction season."