Salters Road widening project

Salters Road, between Verdae and ICAR, will be resurfaced and widened soon by the SCDOT. According to the handout from a public information meeting that was held earlier this month, the “proposed project would widen the existing roadway to four 12-foot travel lanes and include a grassed median, bike lanes, and sidewalks.” A new wider and longer bridge would be required over I-85 as part of the project, which would also include bike lanes (and I assume a taller and safer guardrail).

I have been out of the loop on this project, but from everything I have seen the proposed road layout sounds great. You can read more about it in the SCDOT document mentioned previously and this article in the Greenville News (do a Google search for “Salters Road project may include bridge replacement” to see the full article if you are not a Greenville News subscriber). When the redesigned road is complete, it will be a great bike friendly connection to ICAR, but it is a major project that will take up to 12 months to complete. During that time, Salters Road will be closed completely with the detour shown above as the suggested alternate. Verdae and Laurens are not ideal roads for cyclists to use as an alternate route to ICAR, so Spinners advocacy chairperson Frank Mansbach has proposed a few good ideas that could make the detour safer for all users during the year of construction :

1) Adding share the road and /or bicycle route signs on Verdae Boulevard from Rocky Slope to Laurens.

2) Reduced speed limit on Verdae from current 45 mph.

3) Re-striping all or part of Verdae to add bike lanes or shared lane markings (sharrows).

Rather than turning from Verdae onto Laurens, Frank suggests that the designated bike detour would cross to Parkins Mill, then left on Ridge Road and left on Fairforest to get to ICAR (signage and/ or sharrows would be required on Ridge Road and Parkins Mill as well).

I personally think these are great suggestions that should be considered by the SCDOT as this project is being planned. They have opened the project to public comment until February 24th (this Friday), so if you agree that a safe alternate detour for cyclists is a good idea, contact SCDOT Program Manager Tommy Elrod at (864) 241-1010 or elrodjt@scdot.org to express your support for the ideas above and any others that you might have.


Switching gears, I want to mention an event that is taking place this weekend. The BMW Performance Center and the Greenville Spinners Bicycle Club are hosting a special showing of the movie “Chasing Legends” at the BMW Zentrum this Saturday, February 25th at 6:30pm. “Chasing Legends” Director Jason Berry will there, so don’t miss your chance to see the film, meet the director, and possibly win some great prizes. You read more about the event, and purchase tickets, at Go Green Events. All proceeds from the evening are going to the United Way of Greenville, so it’s for a good cause as well. I am looking forward to it, and I hope to see you there.