COLUMBIA, S.C. — In Richland County, work started Tuesday on a project aimed at enhancing safety along Sunset Drive near Columbia.
Richland County leaders broke ground on the project along an approximately three-quarters of a mile stretch of the road between North Main Street and River Drive. The county has been looking for areas where pedestrians are crossing the road for shopping, food, or other services but don't have adequate safe spaces to walk.
"The real mission is to look at underserved areas and where we spend most of our time doing a lot of projects to get people who want to go to work or shop the ability to get there either by vehicle or by pedestrian way," said Michael Maloney, the director of public works and interim director of transportation for Richland County.
"The need came from the people, the need came from the residents here," Maloney added. "When it's finished, it will have a pedestrian sidewalk, upgrades to the curbs and gutters on the road and to the utility infrastructure," he added.
The project, costing $5.2 million, is funded by the Transportation Penny Program. When it’s finished, the area will have a pedestrian sidewalk, upgrades to the curbs and gutters on the road, as well as to the utility infrastructure.
"There is a Burger King on the corner and they have sidewalks. When they developed their site, they put sidewalks on the sunset side. So from that point to here at River Drive and at the end of Broad River Road here, that's where the project will stretch and provide that connection between Broad River Road and North Main Street," Maloney explained.
The department anticipates that once this project is completed, it will decrease accidents while also allowing for smoother traffic flow.
"The goal is to make it easier for people walking in the area to get from point A to point B safely," said project manager Michael Green. "This is several years of work that got us to this point. We are trying to get pedestrian traffic out of the roadway. There are sometimes deadly interactions if we don't get them out of the road. So that was the thought process behind the project."
The project is expected to take roughly a year to complete.
"Our economic department at Richland County has put numbers to that and it's exciting to see," Maloney concluded.