COASTAL OBSERVER

A community group has endorsed a plan to install a roundabout at the intersection of Waverly Road and Petigru Drive in spite of concern that it will lead to the removal of an oak tree on one corner.

“If they can work around that tree, there would be no issues with the roundabout,” said Vincent Davis, president of the Pawleys Island Civic Club.

He submitted a letter in support of the project to the Grand Strand Area Transportation Study, an intergovernmental group that allocates federal funds for projects in a three-county region. Funding for the roundabout was placed at the top of the list of intersection improvements by the GSATS policy committee this spring.

The goal is to replace the offset intersection of the two roads.

The $1.15 million for the project was first allocated in 2017, but community opposition to removing the oak caused the plan to be scrapped. Examinations by an arborist at the time and again this year showed the oak is in good, but declining, condition. It is a neighborhood landmark whose trunk served as a community notice board. The flyers for long-forgotten events have gone, but the nails that held them still cover the bark.

The civic club initially opposed the revived roundabout plan because of the oak.

“We would prefer the tree to live its lifespan out,” Davis said.

Funds for the project are scheduled to become available in 2027 for engineering and 2028 for construction.

If the tree isn’t going to survive anyway, Davis said the civic club is willing to consider the options. However, they suggested it be designed to fit the space.

“We wanted to see if it could be a smaller roundabout,” he said.

Mark Hoeweler, executive director of GSATS, said that the state Department of Transportation won’t do the project without removing the tree.

While the tree is a key feature, “we are first and foremost for safety for our community,” Davis said. “A roundabout will be safer.”

Since the roundabout was first proposed, there have been 16 collisions at the intersection, according to data compiled by the state Department of Public Safety. That’s the most of any intersection along Waverly Road. There were 14 at the intersection with Highway 17.

Only three of the collisions at Waverly and Petigru resulted in injuries. Those collisions were caused by the “failure to yield right of way,” according to the data. That was also the cause of seven other collisions.

County Council Member Stella Mercado led the effort to get the project back on the GSATS list. 

“There are so many reasons: safety, drainage,” she said. “Having the community buy-in is an important part of doing the project.”

The work will also tie in with the expansion of the Bike the Neck path along Waverly Road. Work started last week to complete the final section of the path that will replace a sidewalk built in the 1980s. The sidewalk from Waccamaw Elementary School to Petigru Drive was replaced over the last year. The final section will take the new path to Highway 17, where it will connect with the path that runs south to the South Causeway.

A roundabout “is going to align well with the contingency projects on the CPST,” said Mercado, referring to the capital projects sales tax referendum that will be on the ballot in November.

Extending the bike path north along Petigru Drive to Martin Luther King Road is among the projects on the contingency list for the referendum. The project is also on the county’s bike path master plan.

The Pawleys Island Civic Club lobbied to get that project and two others on the list of projects that will be funded by a 1-cent sales tax imposed over eight years. A bike path and drainage project along Martin Luther King is among those guaranteed for funding if voters pass the referendum. A similar project is fourth on the contingency list and would be eligible for funds if revenue exceeds the estimates or projects ahead of it drop off the list. 

The Petigru path is ninth on the contingency list.

People are excited about those projects, which have been talked about for years, Davis said.

“We see what’s going on around us, that’s developing as we speak,” he said. “People are going to be in more danger than ever.”

He is optimistic that voters will support the capital projects tax and another 1-cent increase in the sales tax that will be used to offset county taxes on real estate and personal property.

Of the $74.2 million in proposed projects, $42.6 million is for rural water and/or sewer projects.

“That’s a huge concern,” said Davis. “I have friends in the rural areas that don’t have clean drinking water.”

The additional 2-cent taxes isn’t a concern.

“You’re going to get a lot of reward for it,” he said.