County commissioners Monday voted 6-1 to support the original plan to place an overpass with an access road at the intersection of U.S. 74-76 and Old Lake Road, reversing a decision made at an earlier meeting.
Commissioner Giles “Buddy” Byrd cast the sole vote against the plan.
At an earlier meeting, the commissioners had voted to encourage the Department of Transportation to allow direct access from Interstate 74 to East Columbus at Old Lake Road. A similar resolution was passed on a split vote at Lake Waccamaw in a recent meeting, with Mayor Daniel Hilburn, Matt Wilson and Frank Carroll voting for more direct access, and Terry Littrell and Rosemary Dorsey voting against the proposal.
At a previous county meeting, Drew Cox of the Department of Transportation briefed the board on the overpass plan, which is part of the Interstate 74 improvement project. The overpass was first proposed in 2013, when DOT unveiled plans for an interchange at Chauncey Town Road and an overpass beside East Columbus High School.
The county schools sent a letter to commissioners Monday endorsing the original plan with the access road to Georgia Road.
Since then, the plan has had several different iterations, including one that would have allowed merging lanes alongside the interstate between Old Lake and Chaunceytown. Federal funding guidelines do not support interchanges closer than two miles on rural highways.
“You can have interchanges closer together in major cities,” Cox said.
The final version of the plan calls for replacing the at-grade intersections at Chaunceytown and Old Lake, adding a traffic roundabout at Chauncey Town and N.C. 214, and building an overpass immediately north of East Columbus at Old Lake Road. A roundabout at Firetower Road (Old Lake in the town limits) and N.C. 214 was cut from the plan. The current project cost is estimated at $45 million. The final plan was based in part on input from the second public meeting, Cox said.
The access road will connect Old Lake and Georgia Road, which intersects with Chauncey Town. The new road was added after a second public meeting DOT held with members of the community. A proposal to use Ben Jones Road as part of the project was cut due to flooding problems.
Cox said costs have continued to rise on the project, and federal funding was in danger of being withdrawn if positive steps were not taken in the near future.
“We have received some grant funding through the Federal Highway Administration for this project, and we must start spending it or award a project within the next year,” Cox said in an email. “Any delays to redesign this intersection could jeopardize that funding and cause this entire project to be delayed by several years, as it would have to compete anew with other projects for funding.”
Commissioner Byrd said in Monday’s meeting he has an interest in some of the property that could be affected by the project, but he supported the interchange at Old Lake. He also said that state officials had made conflicting statements about the availability of federal funding for the project if a second interchange was pursued.
In the original meetings, first responders and Buckhead residents were critical of the overpass, noting that it would take longer for ambulances from Buckhead to access U.S. 74 en route to Columbus Regional. There could also be delays for Buckhead firefighters responding to calls along the four lane.
Lake Waccamaw Mayor Daniel Hilburn said the plan will route large trucks into Lake Waccamaw, as well as increasing the number of left turns required to leave the school. One of his primary concerns was the ability of emergency vehicles and first responders to access the school.
“In these modern times, we have school shootings,” Hilburn said. “God forbid one should ever happen here, but emergency vehicles need faster access to the school if something were to happen.”
Hilburn said he and other supported the merge lane concept that would have placed a third lane parallel to the interstate and allowed vehicles to directly access ECHS from the four-lane highway.
“I think it could be done,” Hilburn said. “It wouldn’t endanger motorists. There are interchanges and lanes like that all over the state in urban areas.”
Both intersections will be converted to reduced conflict interchanges (RCIs) as a temporary measure. RCIs require motorists to turn right onto a highway, then cross over at a dedicated intersection to turn left. RCI crossings have been shown to dramatically reduce T-bone, or side impact crashes. The cost of the RCI crossings is around $1.8 million, and construction will start before the end of the year.
Cox said the concept was examined as part of the nearly decade-long discussion of the project.
“We were happy to have listened to the concerns raised by Daniel Hilburn, and we did our due diligence about the issues he raised,” Cox said. “We are excited about starting construction on this project next year. This project will be a big boost to safety and traffic flow on this important corridor.”
