Steep Costs for U.S. 17 Greenery

The landscaping along U.S. 17 might look pretty, but the thousands of plants and miles of grass will be costly.

"People want the road to be beautiful, and I don't want to see the guardrail either, but my concern is long-term maintenance," said Councilwoman Linda Page.

Workers are installing enough sod along the route to cover two football fields and nearly 1,700 trees will be planted along the highway. That says nothing of the thousands of ground covers, bulbs and ornamental shrubs that are going in.

All the landscaping and irrigation amounts to a $2.3 million investment, according to town records obtained by Mount Pleasant Patch. The entire road overhaul from the Ravenel Bridge to Wando High School — trees, asphalt, bridges and all — totals $135 million.

On a route that's been called an "asphalt scar" through Mount Pleasant, the trees are an added cushion to a road system that rivals some interstates in size. But it's upkeep could be costly.

"Are the plants native; how much water will it take? That's my worry," Page said. "And we spend a tremendous amount of money on weed eating and maintenance already."

Mount Pleasant spent $255,000 last year on water. Roughly 75 percent of those 32 million gallons was applied to town landscaping.

But cost increase estimates associated with the new U.S. 17 plantings are not easy to come by. Factors, such as rain, will influence water usage.

"Since this is new irrigation, the first-year cost is hard to identify since there are many factors that affect the irrigation cost," said Rick Griles, the town's purchasing officer.

The town negotiated a new water rate from Mount Pleasant WaterWorks at the end of its last fiscal year. That will save $88,000 this year, Griles said. That could offset costs associated with the new landscaping.

But on top of water, the amount of labor involved in edging, pruning and trimming all those new trees, shrubs and flowers could be a burden, Page worries.

"When I plant at home, I think about the long-term care," Page said. "Over the years there has been less and less grass and more and more mulch and pine straw."

BY THE NUMBERS
1,693 trees
160,000 square feet of grass
$1.5 million in landscaping for the north section of U.S. 17
$450,000 for the U.S. 17/I-526 interchange
$135 million: Total cost of U.S. 17 overhaul