Part of Enterprise Road to close Monday for nine months
Part of Enterprise Road from Hunter’s Horn Lane to Butler Road will close Monday and stay closed for about nine months for bridge construction.
The closure is part of the $190 million southern extension of S.C. 31 from S.C. 544 to near the Georgetown County line. The closure is expected to last until June and the extension is expected to be done by summer 2017, according to Horry County.
Horry County Schools have changed bus routes affected by the closure, businesses along that stretch have tried to notify customers and come next week, drivers will have to adjust.
Originally, Firestone, Colo.-based Flat Iron Corp., thought it would close Enterprise Road for nine months beginning in August 2014, but that date was pushed to last December. That gave Horry County Schools ample time to prepare for the closed road, said Jim Wright, transportation director for Horry County Schools. In January, contractors delayed the construction of the Enterprise Road bridge as part of a maneuver in the construction plan.
“We changed our plan last year before it got delayed,” Wright said. “We started this year out with a new route.”
Traffic off S.C. 707 turning onto Enterprise Road trying to get to places like the Waccatee Zoo, the Osprey Marina and Waccamaw River Tours will have to be re-routed to continue down S.C. 707 to Bay Road and back on to Enterprise Road.
Rick Lanigan and Kim Carlson own Waccamaw River Tours on Enterprise Road and Lanigan said the two-year-old business receives a lot of its traffic from the S.C. 707 area.
“We’re going to have to send everybody down to Bay Road and from Bay Road and back to Enterprise Road,” he said, adding his off-season schedule is down to one 3 p.m. tour, which coincides with area school bus traffic. “That’ll probably affect our schedule with the buses being out there.
“Until two weeks ago, the sign wasn’t even up that they were closing Enterprise.”
Lisa Bourcier, spokeswoman for Horry County, said the S.C. Department of Transportation anticipated the traffic snarls.
“The intersection at Bay Road and S.C. 707 may see some additional traffic during morning and evening rush hours,” Bourcier said.
She said signage has been up for a while.
“There have been two message boards up announcing the closure since mid-August and the contractor has spoken with local businesses,” Bourcier said.
Bourcier said delays could be caused by weather.
“As always the weather can be a concern and any unknowns with underground work such as utilities could possibly be a factor,” Bourcier said. “The contractor is confident that they can complete the project on time, even with some possible weather and utility delays.”
Lanigan said he may consider applying for a permit to put a detailed detour sign at S.C. 707 and Enterprise Road to redirect traffic.
“The GPS is not going to know that Enterprise Road is closed,” Lanigan said. “We have to let everybody know that there’s a detour to get to us. For us to do that, it’s going to kind of be a ... nightmare. It’s going to be an expense. It’s going to be a little bit of a problem to get everybody to know that we’re here.”
Jeff Futrell at the Waccatee Zoo said his family has done “everything we could” to let their customers know about the blocked road.
“Just letting them know as they come in and we sit down and pray every night,” Futrell said, adding they’ve made revisions to their brochures. “There’s not a lot you can do. Sit back and deal with it and see what happens.”
Jason M. Rodriguez: 843-626-0301, @TSN_JRodriguez
S.C 31 Extension Update
The $237 million project to extend S.C. 31 to about S.C. 707 is on schedule and about 40 percent complete, according to Horry County officials. It has been a multi-year project funded mostly by State Infrastructure Bank Funds, and in part with American Recovery and Investment Act Funds and local match dollars. 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 2017.
Most of the utilities have completed their work on Enterprise Road and S.C. 707, according to the county. The drilled shaft foundations for the 116 shafts on the north and south sides are complete, and 18 of 27 bent columns are completed and nine bent caps are complete.
The two wetland bridges are in progress and the concrete paving for the roadway should begin soon, according to the county..
This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Part of Enterprise Road to close Monday for nine months."