A letter from Mayor Riley regarding the Stocker Drive issue...

In case you did not receive the email, this is a letter from Mayor Riley:
It has come to our attention that some residents have raised questions or received misinformation over the proposed Wesley Drive Improvement Project that Charleston County is funding through its Roadwise program and I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify some of those issues. First of all, the Wesley Drive Project (The Project) was initially introduced by the City of Charleston to Charleston County for a fly-over highway connection from Savannah Highway to the Fielding Connector with the purpose to divert traffic from using Wesley Drive for those with a James Island destination. After the County studied the fly-over concept, the studies showed that the fly-over would not attract sufficient traffic to make the construction of the fly-over economically feasible. The traffic analysis and projections simply did not support or justify the construction of a fly-over, in addition to the fact that the cost for such facility would have significantly exceeded the available funds from the half cent sales tax.

As a result, The City of Charleston asked the County to not abandon the project, but that instead it look for other ways to improve traffic conditions in the area of Wesley Drive and to find ways to make the area more bike and pedestrian friendly. Based on the City’s request, a second concept was developed for the widening of Wesley Drive to create additional lane capacity, but this concept required the widening of Wesley Dr. which the surrounding neighborhoods opposed during the public meetings where the concepts were presented. Another idea was presented that also included a connector road through Hay Tire between Savannah Hwy. and SC 61 along with the elimination of the left turn at Savannah Hwy. and Wesley Drive (towards the City). This time the Mooreland Neighborhood objected to this concept because those residents wanted to keep the left turn from Savannah Hwy. to Wesley Dr. to access their neighborhood. At the same time we urged Charleston County to develop yet another concept for a bike and pedestrian bridge across Folly Road connecting the Greenway, but unfortunately this bridge would have had to be constructed over a main Charleston Water Systems Line which would have required substantial relocation cost, which made the bridge idea not financially feasible.

Based on the request from the neighborhoods, The City of Charleston again went to Charleston County and requested that the County not abandon the project or take the funds elsewhere, but that rather another alternative be developed to provide better pedestrian connections among the neighborhoods with new sidewalks, crosswalks at signalized intersections, pedestrian signals, a wide path for connecting the Greenway from the west side of Folly Road to the east side of Folly Road, the creation of a new left turn lane from Folly Road northbound into WINDERMERE BVLD (Not STOKER Dr.), landscaping, and sidewalk lighting. At the City’s request all of these improvements have been incorporated into a design package completed and funded by Charleston County.

This design is now expected to be constructed after Charleston County bids the project in the next few months. The project will enhance neighborhood connections with a new and improved network of sidewalks, cyclist and walkers that use the Greenway will have a safer and wider path while getting across Folly Road, Moreland residents will be able to cross Highway 61 and Savannah Highway to get to the Windermere area and access to the Greenway, traffic from Folly Road wishing to access Windermere Blvd. will have a dedicated left turn lane where they would not block the intersection creating congestion (as it is the case today), Wesley Drive will have sidewalk lighting making it safer to for pedestrians to walk during times of low level lighting, and much more. We are extremely thankful to the residents for their input throughout the process and as one can see, due to the neighborhoods’ input the Wesley Drive Project went through several iterations and modifications until the best plan was designed and completed. With a complete set of construction plans we are now on our way to bidding the project and on to the construction of what will be a significant enhancement for community livability, pedestrian friendly connections, bicycle connections, and traffic improvement for the neighborhood in the area.

I thank you for the opportunity to present the facts to you and look forward to continuing to work with each of you on improving your neighborhoods. I also thank each of you for the hard work that you do in making your neighborhoods a better place to live.

Mayor Joe Riley