Update: Slow Down Today on Johnnie Dodds

UPDATE: The new lower speed limit goes into place today on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard.

You would be hard pressed to get your vehicle over 35 mph on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard anyway, but just in case you get the chance, town leaders have decided to force motorists to lay on the brakes.

“It’s going to go from 45 to 35 for the duration of the rest of the (construction) contract, which will be through spring of 2013,” said Brad Morrison, the town’s traffic engineer in a WCBD-TV story.

The move is meant to improve safety over the next year and a half as highway workers begin phases of the project that brings them closer to traffic, Morrison said.

The new speed impacts the portion of Johnnie Dodds from the foot of the Ravenel Bridge to the Interstate 526 overpass, but as work moves along U.S. Hwy. 17, the lower speed could spread the length of the busy traffic corridor.

Mount Pleasant police will enforce the new speed, which if broken, could cost drivers as much as $450 in fines, according to a Charleston County news release.

The Hwy. 17 overhaul, which includes a flyover at Bowman Road, widening certain parts of the roadway and massive drainage overhauls, is expected to last until spring of 2013. Though much of the work will be complete before that, final paving can’t occur until warmer spring temperatures arrive.