As Fairview Road experiences another growth spurt, traffic at the corner of Fairview Road and Harrison Bridge Road continues to ause concern for shoppers and travelers. Getting into the Martin Property and out of the Martin property has been confusing and has resulted in several fender benders. With Chili’s restaurant under construction right now and an announcement that Sharonview Federal Credit Union is coming into the same shopping center, the SCDOT has apparently begun work on solutions for traffic relief.
The southbound lane of Fairview Road at the corner of Harrison Bridge Road had a designated right hand turn lane and a right turn traffic signal removed just recently. Both lanes now permit traffic to go straight on Fairview road for a short while before the road abruptly merges into one lane again. The markings on the turning lane have been scratched off and the light has been covered with black plastic. The problem at this point is that traffic in the right lane may not want to turn into the Public’s parking lot and could possibly have to merge back to one lane further down Fairview Road.
This issue is but one of the concerns with the traffic plan for Fairview/Harrison Bridge Roads. Difficulties also arise with traffic trying to turn left into the shopping center from Harrison Bridge because of heavy southbound traffic. At certain times of day traffic is so heavy that shoppers exiting CVS pharmacy and Target not only have difficulty turning left to go to the intersection but they also have some difficulty turning right because of heavy traffic. In order to get back on to Fairview Road from those parking lots several citizens have reported driving all way down to Neeley Farm and making a U-turn.
With more and more businesses locating in the Fairview/Harrison Bridge Road area SCDOT’s engineers are continuing to monitor the situation to improve the traffic flow. Widening of Harrison Bridge Road has been discussed by both state and county entities however, no plans are on the books to approve that project. According to Craig Nelson, one of the SCDOT traffic engineers, a traffic study was done prior to construction on the Martin Property and those numbers are being reviewed and studied to provide possibly better options.
A new traffic light timing change is in the works. A program called Adaptive Systems will be applied to the Fairview Road area in the near future. The software will automatically adjust the timing of lights based on traffic flow. A similar system was installed last fall on Woodruff Road and reports of its effectiveness are encouraging.♦
