CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The South Carolina Department of Transportation is seeking public input on its amendment to the statewide Transportation Improvement Program, which includes plans for extending the East Coast Greenway through the state.
\nThe East Coast Greenway would span 15 states from Maine to Florida.
\nThe project aims to provide safer routes for bicyclists and pedestrians.
\nThe amendment focuses on planning and pre-engineering for the Greenway in South Carolina, particularly in the Grand Strand, Charleston and Lowcountry regions.
\nSCDOT has applied for a federal grant to cover the estimated cost of this initial phase is $3.5 million.
\nExecutive Director of Charleston Moves, Katie Zimmerman, explains how essential this pathway would be for the Lowcountry.
\n\u201cIf this funding was approved, we would be able… SCDOT would be able to work with cities and counties to put in the proper infrastructure that would connect our communities to one another in a much more safer and accessible way,\u201d Zimmerman said.
\nThe Communities and Transportation Manager for the Coastal Conservation League Emma Berry also emphasized its importance.
\n\u201cPrioritizing bike and pedestrian infrastructure gets more cars off the road, which ultimately ends up having a cleaner environment, less air pollution, and less cars on the road, which ultimately helps mitigate climate change,\u201d Berry said.
\nSCDOT encourages the public to share their feedback, which will be considered before finalizing plans for the Greenway extension.
\nBerry also pointed out a specific concern along the route.
\n\u201cUS Highway 17 north of Mount Pleasant right now that part of the route is just along the roadway. So, you know, you\u2019re going down about like a 55-60 mph road on a bike or walking if you\u2019re using the East Coast Greenway,\u201d Berry said.
\nPublic comments on the project opened on July 18 and will end Aug. 8.
\n\u201cI know people are sort of… It\u2019s sort of exhausting, right? You sort of think, oh, what\u2019s the point? Why do I need to weigh in, or why is there all this planning, and we don\u2019t actually ever see any change on the ground? This is all part of the process,\u201d Zimmerman said.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The South Carolina Department of Transportation is seeking public input on its amendment to the statewide Transportation Improvement Program, which includes plans for extending the East Coast Greenway through the state. The East Coast Greenway would span 15 states from Maine to Florida. The project aims to provide safer routes for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":136707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-136706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-department-of-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}