Johnnie Dodds Work Nearly Finished

Take one last look, because the 10-mile sea of orange traffic barrels along U.S. Hwy. 17 in Mount Pleasant will soon be a thing of the past.

The town's 18-month-long overhaul of Johnnie Dodds Boulevard from the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge to the Interstate 526 overpass is mostly finished. And the rest of the project is on track for completion by mid February.

The milestone will be celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday.

"The main line (from the bridge to Wando Crossing) is primarily done," said Brad Morrison, the town's director of transportation.

Finishing work on those first three miles of the project — lighting, landscaping, striping and sidewalk work — still remains incomplete, Morrison said.

"Now the attention turns to the Frontage Road system, which needs final paving and striping, and to the segments north of the Isle of Palms Connector," Morrison said.

All that work, and the widening from the Isle of Palms Connector to Darrel Creek Trail, is its final days. Even the larger unfinished projects, such as the Hungryneck Blvd. overpass, will be complete by mid-February.

The drive should already be a lot easier for motorists who commute from Snee Farm, for example, and points south to downtown Charleston, Morrison said.

"The road is six lanes from Towne Centre to the bridge," he said. "You may see a lot of folks getting over at the Hungryneck-I-526 interchange, but they don't have to anymore. It's six lanes all the way."

The added capacity alone will speed commute times, Morrison said, but motorists will notice even more improvement once all the highway system's traffic lights are linked on one computer system.

"Right now all the lights are running on the old timer system, which we monitor," Morrison said. Read more about the integrated traffic signal system.

"In theory, with the new system, cars will move in one platoon from the start of the project to the end with few, if any, stops," Morrison said. "Of course, that's theoretical, you can't always guarantee it."

The stop-start congestion found at peak times was the reason the town, county and state embarked on the $135 million improvement project.

Despite the good news, the road will still have some delays as crews put down finishing touches. The county advises of a handful of closures and delays through Dec. 31. Read the latest closure advisory.

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