Crews Begin Work on Downtown Lexington Roads

Construction crews are starting the process of widening roads downtown to improve three intersections along U.S. 378. 

New lanes will be added on both sides of U.S. 378 near where it intersects with Park Road, West Main Street and Old Chapin Road, and West Butler Street and Reed Street. 

The S.C. Department of Transportation awarded a $4.7 million contract to United Contractors for Phase I of the Unified Traffic Improvement Plan, a plan seven years in the making that aims to ease Lexington's traffic congestion. 

The contractors broke ground Monday on West Butler Street and laid about 100 feet of pipe, Bryan Jones with SCDOT told town council Monday night. The crews are laying the pipe in preparation for an underground detention system that will be installed where Riley's Drugs used to be at the corner of West Butler and Columbia Avenue. The lot eventually will be used as a green space. 

Mast-arm traffic signals similar to the ones on Main Street will be installed at all three intersections. The signals will include sensors that adjust to traffic flow.

Lanes will only be closed for construction between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m., Jones said.

The expected completion date for the project is April 30, 2014.