COASTAL OBSERVER

A $1.5 million study this year will examine solutions to the failing intersection at Bypass 17 and Highway 707 using a program that is intended to fast track projects.

The work was added recently by the Grand Strand Area Transportation Study policy committee to the $101 million in “regional mobility” projects scheduled through 2033.

“It’s much needed. I hope it will be shovel-ready,” said state Rep. Lee Hewitt, who chairs the policy committee. 

The intersection was at the top of the list of 10 priorities in a 2020 study of the Highway 17 corridor on Waccamaw Neck commissioned by GSATS. The engineering firm AECOM proposed modifying the intersection to eliminate left turns in all directions except for vehicles heading west on 707.

The work was estimated to cost $4.5 million at the time.

But it wasn’t included in the list of projects that Georgetown County submitted in 2022 for a share of the federal funding that GSATS allocates to projects in Georgetown, Horry and Brunswick, N.C., counties.

Clint Elliott, who attended his first policy committee meeting as chairman of Georgetown County Council, said the county had been working to get the 17-707 intersection on to the regional project list.

“It’s fantastic,” he said of its inclusion.

The study will use a process developed by the Federal Highway Administration called “Planning and Environmental Linkages.” It will look at the environmental and human impact of the intersection improvement, said Stacey Johnson, the project manager for the state Department of Transportation. 

That will speed up the process by meeting criteria for the National Environmental Policy Act that are needed before the project is approved.

It will also increase public participation.

“This study will allow us to hold a lot more meetings with the stakeholders,” Johnson said.

Alternatives to the AECOM design include an overpass. 

“We’ll have to find the money to pay for that,” Elliott said.

One project that Georgetown County did submit for GSATS funding in 2022 is moving toward the preliminary design stage, Johnson said.

That project will reconfigure the intersection of Litchfield Drive and Highway 17 to eliminate backups at Country Club Drive on the opposite side of the highway. AECOM’s proposal was to close the median to eliminate left turns and install median cuts with traffic signals that allow U-turns in the southbound lane at Crooked Oak Drive and in the northbound lane near Salt Marsh Cove.

“We want to look at other options as well,” Johnson said.

DOT hopes to have a couple of different designs to show to the public by the end of the year, he said.