SCDOT OKs Ashley River Bridge Bike Lane

Bike riders and walkers in West Ashley will soon have a safer route into Downtown Charleston.

The S.C. Department of Transportation on Friday notified Charleston County and the City of Charleston that it agrees with both that converting one lane of traffic on the T. Allen Legare Bridge, which carries cars into Downtown Charleston over the Ashley River, to a bicycle and pedestrian lane is feasible and acceptable.

"It's fabulous news," Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley said. "The County Council deserves a lot of credit for getting this moving."

City and county staff will begin meeting with SCDOT officials in January to finalize the design and planning for the conversion.  Riley said those meetings will begin as soon as possible in January.

The county's Roadwise road construction program will be overseeing the project, however Riley said the cost of the project is not yet known.

"Before doing the design work, we needed to know that the project was OK with the DOT," he said.

Riley has pushed hard for more bicycle and pedestrian lanes along heavily traveled routes across the city, most recently including the bicycle and pedestrian lanes added to St. Andrews Boulevard in West Ashley. Riley is also backing a plan to install such lanes along Paul Cantrell Boulevard from Bees Ferry Road to Mary Ader Avenue.

"What that does is open up, substantially open up biking opportunities," . "Wild Cat is going to be connected with the Carolina Bay network of streets that have bike and pedestrian infrastructure which then gets you to Croghan's Landing. Croghan's Landing doesn't have separate bike and pedestrian, but a small section can get you to the West Ashley Greenway. So that one section on McConnell that we put in a grant application for would be a real game changer."

That plan has been approved by Charleston City Council and funding will come from the Charleston County Transportation Committee, Riley said Friday.