COLUMBIA, S.C. — Bluff Road has been a project for the Richland County Department of Transportation since 2016, and now they are ready to move on to the next part of improvements.
Hundreds of Columbia residents travel this road each day, and businesses owners like Laura Dowey say they witness just how busy it gets every day.
"It is mainly an industrial area here but there is a lot of traffic up and down the road," she explained.
After hearing about the Bluff Road Widening project moving into Phase Two, Dowey says she had concerns about her customers, and students getting in and out of her parking lot with the addition of traffic construction.
"The businesses along here already know it's hard... very hard to get out on the road from our driveway. I'm worried about how my student's will be able to come and go with the addition of the traffic projects," Dowey stated.
However, her traffic concerns are exactly why the Richland County Department of Transportation wanted to start this improvement project.
"Not necessarily a lot of accidents but there's been a lot of residential and commercial development and just enough to make traffic a little easier and for us to improve the bluff road."
The road work will be on a stretch of road near I-77 all the way to Williams-Brice Stadium. The improvements include a new traffic light at the intersection of Bluff and Bluff Industrial Road.
The entire road will be resurfaced from Bluff all the way down to South Beltline Boulevard. There will also be additional turning lanes added as needed.
"The main goal with this is to improve the intersections in the area, so it's not even really a widening anymore," said Project Manager, Kimberly Toney. "We came to the public in 2016 and took note of their suggestions. Now with project costs and public concerns this is more of an intersection improvement project."
Project managers are hoping to start work in the spring of 2023 to avoid traffic during football season. The project is expected to only take a little more than a year to complete.