Letter: River Oaks Drive is Ride III’s missing link

The plans for Ride III currently list widening lanes. Ride II will pave and widen International Drive. What is missing is widening River Oaks Drive between Carolina Forest Boulevard and International Drive.

This missing link will cause huge traffic delays, auto accidents and drastically increase response times for fire rescue and police in the Carolina Forest area. School bus traffic will also experience major delays.

The portion of River Oaks Drive that needs widening is a short distance with two traffic lights. This road needs to be widened to accept the increase dtraffic that will be on this road when International Drive is widened. And when Carolina Forest Boulevard, is widened this section of road will become a traffic nightmare.

Horry County needs all the currently listed projects. But without widening the short section of River Oaks Drive, driving and traffic will be much worse in the Carolina Forest area.

So if River Oaks is not added to the Ride III proposal, I will vote against the Ride III project.

Please think about this. Ride III is supposed to benefit our area. But as currently proposed Ride, 111 will make traffic in our area much worse.

Please contact your Horry County Council member and let him know how you feel about this issue and how you would vote. This portion of River Oaks Drive is a county road.

Myrtle Beach

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Letter: River Oaks Drive is Ride III’s missing link."