Petition seeks sidewalk linking Wright’s Point to Spanish Moss Trail
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Allison Kindwall wasn’t trying to start a campaign when she set out for a Saturday morning run to the Port Royal Farmers Market.
She was just trying to get there without a car.
But as Kindwall made her way toward the Russell Bell Bridge, the sidewalk disappeared. What she thought would be a relatively simple run instead left her navigating a busy stretch of roadway with no safe pedestrian route to the bridge.
“I should be able to run over the bridge safely,” Kindwall said. “Like, that’s not a crazy thing to say.”
Now the longtime Beaufort resident is trying to turn that frustrating run into something larger.
Kindwall has started a petition calling for a continuous, ADA-accessible sidewalk from the traffic light at Wright’s Point Lane and Midtown Drive on Parris Island Gateway to Lenora Drive and the Spanish Moss Trail, creating a safe pedestrian connection across the Russell Bell Bridge.
The petition, launched Aug. 18, had collected more than 140 verified signatures by Sept. 1.
Kindwall said the idea is not simply about giving runners another place to exercise. She sees the missing connection as a gap in the area’s transportation network, particularly for residents who walk, bicycle or do not have access to a car.
“This running journey has really taken me on a sidewalk journey,” Kindwall said.
A gap in the network
Kindwall said the problem became apparent as she approached the bridge from the Shell Point side.
The sidewalk ends near the Wright’s Point traffic light, she said, leaving pedestrians without a sidewalk or adequate shoulder as they make their way toward the bridge. The bridge itself has substantial shoulders.
“The bridge is not the problem,” Kindwall said. “It’s getting up to it.”
For Kindwall, the gap is particularly frustrating because of what lies on the other side.
The Spanish Moss Trail provides a pedestrian and bicycle corridor through much of northern Beaufort County, but Kindwall said people in the Shell Point area lack a safe way to reach it without driving.
She said the alternate running route to the Port Royal Farmers Market would have turned what should have been roughly a five-mile trip into one closer to 15 miles.
Kindwall has contacted elected officials, local governments, the S.C. Department of Transportation and Friends of the Spanish Moss Trail in an effort to determine what could be done.
She said Port Royal Mayor Kevin Phillips encouraged her to demonstrate that there was community support for the idea.
“‘Could not agree more,’” Kindwall recalled Phillips telling her. “‘Get some community excitement, community enthusiasm, community backup, and we’d be happy to go after it.’”
That encouragement helped lead Kindwall to start the petition.
A recognized need
Beaufort Mayor Phil Cromer publicly backed the effort in an Aug. 31 comment posted to Kindwall’s petition.
“The City of Beaufort supports efforts to improve pedestrian safety and connectivity throughout our community and the greater Beaufort area,” Cromer wrote.
Cromer pointed to the Beaufort County Connects Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, which he said specifically identifies the Russell Bell Bridge corridor as an important connection to the Spanish Moss Trail.
While the route falls outside the City of Beaufort’s direct jurisdiction, Cromer said the city supports working with Beaufort County, the Town of Port Royal, SCDOT and the community to identify opportunities to advance the connection.
“Improving safe, ADA-accessible connections between our neighborhoods and resources like the Spanish Moss Trail benefits our entire community,” Cromer wrote.
The Island News reached out to elected officials and staff with the Town of Port Royal, Beaufort County, SCDOT and the City of Beaufort for information and comment about the proposed connection.
Beaufort City Councilman Josh Scallate was the only official available for an interview before the newspaper’s print deadline.
Scallate said he also remembered the Russell Bell Bridge connection being included in the Beaufort County Connects Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan and agreed that improving connections to the Spanish Moss Trail should be a goal.
“We look for opportunities to improve our connectivity, especially for the Spanish Moss Trail, and advocate for multimodal transportation,” Scallate said.
At the same time, Scallate said pedestrian improvements are among a number of transportation needs competing for attention and funding.
“We also have a lot of unmet priorities, especially along that corridor, for traffic improvement,” he said. “And so trying to understand where priorities fall once funding becomes available is an important piece to that.”
Already part of the conversation
Other county transportation planning documents also emphasize pedestrian and bicycle access.
Beaufort County’s 2025 U.S. 21 Corridor Study examined the highway from U.S. 17 to Neil Road with goals that included improving safety and enhancing multimodal connectivity and accessibility. The county evaluated potential improvements based in part on whether they would improve bicycle and pedestrian crossing safety, provide separated pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and improve access to the Spanish Moss Trail.
The county considered Beaufort County Connects, the plan cited by Cromer and Scallate, along with other local and state transportation plans while evaluating the U.S. 21 corridor.
The US 21 study also examined several potential changes around the intersection of U.S. 21 and Parris Island Gateway. Some alternatives would leave the Spanish Moss Trail in its current alignment, while others could reroute the trail beneath the intersection to reduce conflicts between trail users and turning vehicles.
The county ultimately selected preferred concepts for portions of the corridor, including Segment 5 from Laurel Bay Road to Neil Road. That section currently has the Spanish Moss Trail on one side of the roadway and a sidewalk on the other. The study selected Alternative 3 as the preferred concept for that section.
Those plans, however, do not appear to provide the continuous connection across the Russell Bell Bridge that Kindwall is seeking.
More than a place to run
Kindwall said her experience running brought her attention to an issue that affects people who cannot simply choose to drive instead.
Her brother does not drive, she said, and a bicycle would otherwise offer a logical way for him to travel between his home and work in the Beaufort area. The lack of a safe passage across the corridor prevents that from being a realistic option, she said.
Kindwall said the same problem affects cyclists, e-bike users and others who rely on alternatives to a car, particularly in an area where public transportation options are limited.
She is not asking officials to replace the Russell Bell Bridge or expecting the problem to be solved immediately.
Kindwall said conversations about the corridor have included possible ways of using the existing roadway differently, including re-striping and creating space for pedestrians or bicycles. Her petition, however, makes a more specific request: build the sidewalk needed to create a continuous, safe connection to the Spanish Moss Trail.
She does not believe residents should have to wait for an eventual bridge replacement before officials begin addressing pedestrian access.
Starting the conversation
Kindwall plans to take her request beyond the online petition.
She said she intends to speak before Beaufort County Council, Beaufort City Council and Port Royal Town Council and hopes other supporters will join her.
It is unfamiliar territory for Kindwall, who said she has never taken on an advocacy effort like this before.
But she also isn’t demanding that local and state governments somehow complete the project within the next year or two.
For now, she wants them to start talking about how it can be done.
And what began as a marathon training run has given her a reason to keep pushing.
“I should be able to run over the bridge safely,” Kindwall said. “That’s not a crazy thing to say.”
Editor’s note: In the interest of transparency, Allison Kindwall is a member of the Leadership Beaufort Class of 2023. Mike McCombs, Editor of The Island News, is also a member of the Leadership Beaufort Class of 2023.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.