Presentation on Reimagine Ribaut Road brings out the city critics
By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
If the two hours of public comments voiced at last week’s Beaufort City Council workshop are any indication, local residents aren’t ready to “reimagine” Ribaut Road.
The latest public session for the proposed redesign of the 5.5-mile road gave folks a chance to comment on a proposed design which includes three roundabouts at Boundary, Bay and Reynolds streets plus a narrowing of the four-lane stretch at the northern end of the road through the largely residential neighborhoods.
And the residents who showed up to share their thoughts pretty much made it clear they weren’t happy with street-narrowing or the proposed roundabouts.
What about the mail delivery trucks (also read UPS, Amazon, etc.) that stop along Ribaut Road? What about the weekly garbage collectors?
Have the planners taken into account what happens when the Woods Memorial Bridge breaks down, as it traditionally does during spring and fall “snow bird” season on the ICW, and all that traffic headed to and from Lady’s Island is diverted down Ribaut Road?
Or what if there’s an accident closing the McTeer Bridge, or it’s closed for repairs for three months as it was in 2007?
Why shouldn’t the city use that money to increase law enforcement to slow speeders who consider the current four lanes a race track?
Those were just some of the questions raised by citizens. Others who’ve been here for a while noted that it wasn’t even until the early 1970s that the main route between Beaufort and Port Royal was even four-laned and traffic congestion was difficult then.
There WAS almost unanimous support for burying utility lines along the road, even though that alone carries a $16.9 million price tag.
The Ribaut Road redesign is being compared to the Boundary Street redesign, completed in 2019 after 14 years of planning, designing, negotiating with the various agencies and construction. That was a joint County, City and S.C. Department of Transportation effort, just like the Ribaut Road project will be, except with the addition of Port Royal’s participation.
It was Port Royal’s efforts to deal with the increasing amounts of traffic, particularly commercial vehicles, coming through the town heading to Lady’s Island, which helped ignite the Ribaut Road redesign. In addition, the town leaders had already been working on a redesign of Paris Avenue to narrow those lanes and improve the intersection of the main thoroughfare with Ribaut Road.
We know Port Royal’s part of Ribaut Road is already going to see changes in the next several months when a hawk-arm traffic signal for the Spanish Moss Trail’s crossing, is installed at the old rail trail near Pender Brothers. The traffic control device will be like the one in place on S.C. 170 near the new Publix.
And while there are three roundabouts proposed for the Beaufort stretch of the Ribaut Road re-do, there are no roundabouts proposed for the Lady’s Island Drive-Ribaut Road intersection which has been the site of multiple collisions. Go figure.
The “ReImagine” plan will be presented to the Port Royal Town Council on Nov. 8, the day after their election which includes a hotly contested mayoral race.
County, City and Port Royal planners have been working with consultants for the past year on this design, with various public comment sessions held and opinions.
This is what they’ve come up with. You can see it for yourself at www.reimagineribautroad.com.
The professionals who presented stressed they weren’t “married” to the current design. Beaufort County Deputy Administrator Jared Fralix stressed, over and over again, the goal of the project is to improve safety on a stretch of road that carries an average of 31,800 vehicles a day.
He noted that the multi-million-dollar price tag would have to come from various federal, state and local sources, including next year’s proposed county transportation sales tax referendum which is also in the design phase.
But, according to Fralix, state Department of Transportation staff planners who have been part of the discussion have counseled the local planners not to be intimidated by the cost; the biggest hurdle can be just getting started with a plan.
The Lady’s Island residents, who went through a similar planning process for road improvements in 2016, probably agree. They’ve been waiting for the County and City planners to come up with solutions to their traffic issues. other than a new turn lane at the Sams Point Road/Sea Island Parkway intersection.
It was hard to tell what the City Council members were thinking last week as speaker after speaker raised questions. Councilman Neil Lipsitz had the most forceful comments, calling the current design “insane” and “horrible.” He got a lot of applause.
Councilman Josh Scallate, a firefighter by profession, had voiced concerns about emergency vehicle access through the proposed roundabouts and the potential three-laned section of Ribaut, leading to the hospital. But Tuesday night his comments focused on the success of roundabouts in other places.
There was a small note of encouragement for folks who think a third bridge crossing would be the answer, reducing traffic on the McTeer Bridge and impacting Ribaut Road: there is money set aside by one of the regional planning groups for a study of that illusive bridge project … again.
All three elected bodies – the County Council, Beaufort City and Port Royal Town councils – will eventually vote to endorse some kind of plan, at least to start the search for construction funding.
If it took 14 years to get Boundary Street looking like it does today, planners are hopeful the Ribaut Road design phase can be done more quickly. In the meantime, how many new homes, with new residents who bring their cars, will have arrived?
County’s ‘chat’ focused everything but ‘elephant in the room’
BEAUFORT – While city officials were listening to their constituents talk about Ribaut Road last Tuesday, a group of County Council members were having a chat with theirs across the road.
The county officials, who have had more than their share of “what in the world” news the last few months thanks to former County Administrator Eric Greenway, decided to schedule some informal “chat” sessions to allow citizens to come in to the council chambers, have a sit and “chat.”
Last week’s session in Beaufort, following the first session in September in Bluffton, drew about 60 citizens who were primarily, according to reports, focused on rehashing the future of Pine Island development out on St. Helena. Very little reference was made to the county administrative comings-and-goings which have seen a half-dozen top officials leave and at least seven state ethics investigations.
Maybe since the issues are being investigated by a special judicial investigative task force AND a special audit team of lawyers hired by the County Council, those present probably felt the “elephant in the room” should best, as in all polite Southern society, not be mentioned.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. Her goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
