As cities and towns throughout the Palmetto State continue to grow, managing traffic to sustain new demands remains a daily concern. Many municipalities, like Lexington, Simpsonville and Aiken, have been innovating solutions to overcome infrastructure growth issues in order to keep traffic flowing.
The Town of Lexington is no stranger to population growth, and traffic. Director of Transportation Randy Edwards noted that the town's traffic issues go as far back as 1980. These days, the town is close to completion of its innovative Adaptive Signalization System project that was outlined in 2012 as part of its Vision Plan. The multifaceted adaptive system includes traffic monitoring by cameras that have the capacity to override signals, adjusting to the volume of traffic at any given time. In addition, "green light tunnels" created by the streetlights allow for synchronicity to encourage greater traffic flow.With funding from the Columbia Area Transportation Study Guideshare Program, Lexington County, Lexington Medical Center and the Town of Lexington successfully funded this $6.6-million project, a winner of the Municipal Association's Achievement Awards in 2020.
The cameras which feed information into Lexington's Adaptive
Signalization System are mounted alongside the
town's traffic lights. Photo: Town of Lexington.
The cameras which feed information into Lexington's Adaptive
Signalization System are mounted alongside the
town's traffic lights. Photo: Town of Lexington.
"Certainly, the adaptive system takes a long time to design, engineer and fund," said Edwards, who continued that the upside of having new growth is that changes to traffic volumes will be accounted for with the adaptive system. "We certainly see a benefit, because the traffic patterns are not normal anymore post-COVID, and we've seen a lot more volume from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. than you normally used to."
The goal of the adaptive system is to make traffic flow more efficiently, explained Edwards, with synchronized intersections working together to move large quantities of cars through the entire system.
In addition to the signal upgrades, the Town of Lexington continues to look for new ways to mitigate congestion. Using funding from its hospitality tax program, other capital construction projects have included changing the traffic patterns from two-way to one-way streets and adding node improvements like detail lanes and auxiliary lanes.
"In conjunction with SC Department of Transportation approval, we're able to fund that, get it working, and have changed the flow efficiencies in downtown Lexington pretty significantly," Edwards said.
In Greenville County, the City of Simpsonville's council recently approved plans to implement a counter clockwise traffic pattern. With study data from the SCDOT, the plan includes changes to the traffic patterns along Main Street.
"Simpsonville has had unprecedented growth over the past 20 years," said City Administrator Dianna Gracely.
The town has seen approximately 28% growth between 2010 and 2020, based on the most recent Census data. Rapid growth and the intersecting of two main highways downtown has only added to congestion.
"Because of all of that rapid growth, and because of the fact that these are well-traveled highways, the traffic has just become too much," said Gracely.
As the city was looking at ways to improve congestion in its downtown, the original proposal was to eliminate on-street parking and add left-turn storage, but that was not ideal because of parking shortages in the downtown. Instead, the city considered using some one-way traffic patterns, which is what it ultimately decided to do, said Gracely.
To easily disseminate information to the community about the project and receive feedback during the planning process, a unique public hearing was created where stations were facilitated by city officials, design partners and SCDOT. SCDOT conducted traffic studies to get the necessary raw data for council to consider.
"[SCDOT] actually conducted the traffic studies for us and they put all of that data, all of the traffic clicks that they took and turning movements, into a simulator that they have and so we were able to look at the traffic flow for the actual number of vehicles and they ran that simulation for morning commuter traffic and evening commuter traffic," said Gracely.
Over the summer, the council voted on the counter clockwise, one-way traffic movement pattern.
Funding for the project included $2 million in county transportation funds by way of the Greenville Legislative Delegation Transportation Committee, as well as a $14 million hospitality and accommodations tax revenue bond.
Still in its initial design phase, the project it is slated to take 18 months to finish.
"It's a complete ground up reconstruction – we're replacing stormwater piping, new gutters, new catch basins, new sidewalks, new streets, new striping pattern, new streetlights, and landscape improvements," said Gracely. "It's a mammoth project."
The City of Aiken has seen its share of growth over the past two decades. To help alleviate some of the strain on the transportation resources, the City of Aiken and Aiken County conducted a joint study in 2006.
"[It] identified the Powderhouse connector, which would connect Whiskey Road to another thoroughfare," said Stuart Bedenbaugh, City Manager for Aiken. "Whiskey Road is a north-south thoroughfare, Pine Log Road is an east-west thoroughfare – [the connector] would connect the two, and by doing so it would relieve traffic along the heaviest-traveled portions of Whiskey Road up to about 25%."
When Mayor Rick Osbon took office in late 2015, Bedenbaugh recounted that the mayor identified this project as one that the city should actively pursue. Funding for the $37 million project was the biggest issue.
"This is a classic example of utilizing multiple funding streams," said Bedenbaugh. To realize the project, funding is coming from 1% capital project sales tax funds. That said, $7 million has been appropriated as well as $1 million in other city funds.
The City of Aiken also received $8 million in federal funds with the help of Sen. Lindsey Graham. "And, most substantially, the state Transportation Infrastructure Bank in September approved the balance of about $20.8 million," noted Bedenbaugh. "It's going to be a project that when complete, will drastically transform the transportation landscape of the southern side of Aiken."
The multiphase project will take about three and a half years to complete. Bedenbaugh said that the property owners have been significant.
"Some of the large property tract owners have donated their right of way because they see the value that their property is going to achieve through the construction of a road," Bedenbaugh said. "Once the roadway is put in, they'll see some benefits from development, whether it's residential or commercial."
Growing populations can create unprecedented transportation challenges in South Carolina, but careful planning and funding — and some creativity — can revolutionize what city streets can do.