City invested $3M on half-mile bypass that will relieve Woodruff Road congestion near Target

City bypass will, if plans work out, connect to a 2.5-mile bypass in the works outside city limits

County portion of bypass would cost $121.2M and is years away from completion

A bypass from Verdae Blvd to Walmart could by 2040 remove 10,100 cars a day from Woodruff Road

Editors Note: This report, originally published Aug. 26, 2019, was updated on Sept. 10 for the opening of the city's portion of the Woodruff Road bypass.

The first half mile of a proposed 3-mile bypass to relieve congestion on Woodruff Road has opened.

The city of Greenville's $3 million project — dubbed "Parallel Parkway" — officially opened Tuesday morning, Sept. 10, 2019, and connects Verdae Boulevard south of Woodruff Road to Woodruff Industrial Lane, a side street half a mile away between Target and Trader Joe's.

The city's now-open stretch of what will be a much longer bypass, if county and state plans come together, is expected to relieve some of Woodruff Road's worst traffic snarls where Target and Trader Joe's sits on one side of the highway and Costco and Magnolia Park, with Cabela's and a multiplex Regal Cinemas, are on the other.

A ceremony Tuesday morning drew the city project's partners — city staff and elected leaders, Piedmont Natural Gas (which contributed $1 million), county and state leaders (who kicked in "C" funds), Magnolia Park (which kicked in $200,000) and representatives from the Hollingsworth group, which donated land.

► Here is a link to a map of the city's portion of the bypass that local residents created using online open-source software: Parallel Parkway

Just this half-mile portion of the bypass, Mayor Knox White said, promises access to the most popular destinations of Woodruff Road without motorists ever having to get onto Woodruff Road. It could potentially take thousands of cars off the traffic-choked commercial artery, he said, adding that the city plans to post signage to help motorists navigate the back roads.

"The conventional wisdom has always been that there are two things in life you can't do anything about: The weather and traffic on Woodruff Road," he told The Greenville News after Tuesday morning's opening ceremony. "We are proud of this."

Proposed county route would connect to city's $3M Parallel Parkway

After laying dormant for eight months, a county-state project to relieve congestion on an additional 2.5 miles of Woodruff Road from Target to Woodruff Road's Walmart rumbled back to life this summer, too.

But that portion — because it is longer, includes two interstate overpasses and requires purchasing miles of right of way — promises to cost at least 40 times what the city's portion cost. Total price tag: $121.2 million.

At full build-out, the proposed county portion of the bypass would on its west end tie directly into the "Parallel Parkway," the road that the city of Greenville opened Tuesday just off Verdae Boulevard. It would tie into Smith Hines Road near Walmart at its east end.

Greenville County Council Chairman Butch Kirven in late August asked for — and received — support from state lawmakers to pursue a $49 million grant from the South Carolina Infrastructure Bank to help pay for the county portion, which traffic experts say is the best long-term bet for fixing Woodruff Road.

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Kirven said Greenville County would kick in $30.3 million for the project, at least $10 million of that in funds the county has set aside from road maintenance fees that motorists must pay on every registered vehicle in Greenville County. The annual charge is $25.

Kirven and Casey Lucas, the state transportation department's project manager for Woodruff Road's congestion relief project, said that in June the Greenville Pickens Area Transportation Study (GPATS) also committed $49 million in federal funds to pay for preliminary engineering and right-of-way acquisition for this project.

GPATS is a group charged with identifying and carrying out road improvements in 777-square-mile region that stretches from Pendleton to Greer. This group receives $18 million a year in "Guide Share" funds from the federal government for major projects.

"F" rating in Woodruff Road's future

As of now, the county portion of the Woodruff Road bypass is the No. 1 project on the GPATS group's five-year "Tranportation Improvement Plan," a running list of major projects.

Engineers estimate that by 2040, the proposed bypass — if completed by then — could divert about 10,100 cars a day off the choked commercial corridor.

Do nothing, analysts say, and the daily car count will increase to 57,800 by 2040. Traffic counts stand at about 50,000 now and the road is graded a level "D" or "F" in terms of congestion, Kirven said.

The plan's most recent financial statement, published in late August, shows preliminary engineering starting this year and right-of-way purchases starting up next year. The group has committed between $8.75 million and $9.45 million a year through 2024 for the purchases.

$121M big fix still uncertain and years away

But a more specific timeline for when the road could be finished is as yet unknown, Lucas said. In addition to land acquisition, engineers must also study the project's impact on the natural environment and on people, she said.

The Federal Highway Administration is undertaking a noise study, according to the latest GPATS project status report from this week. The proposed bypass travels past the Pine Forest and Oak Forest subdivisions, among other residential areas.

The infrastructure bank grant is the only pending piece of the project's $121.2 million budget, but area lawmakers supported it unanimously. The State Infrastructure Bank has the project application in hand now, Kirven said, and commissioners for the South Carolina Department of Transportation will ultimately decide whether to accept any grant money and move forward.

Favorite route was chosen in January

The state transportation department's Lucas said state and local officials chose their favorite solution for the county portion of the bypass (out of five options) back in January. The last public hearing for the project was held in November 2017.

"You really haven't missed anything," Lucas said. "With the alternatives came cost estimates. Before we could move forward, we had to identify funding."

Massive in scale, the proposed bypass extension would include six traffic circles and two bridges traversing interstates 185 and 85. The route itself would zigzag along new and existing — but widened — roadways south of Woodruff Road. And the entire length of the bypass would be five lanes wide with a landscaped median, limited access and five main connections to Woodruff Road.

The city's half-mile stretch of the bypass has an additional three roundabouts and now connects three formerly dead-end streets off Woodruff Road — Woodruff Industrial Lane, Green Heron Road and Ketron Court. It includes a new bike and pedestrian path, too.

Greenville's mayor stressed the importance of limiting curb cuts onto the bypass as a whole, just as the city is going to limit development along its half-mile section. This would avoid future snarls or letting the bypass just become another Woodruff Road.

"It's a good model for how to address traffic congestion in the future," White said. "It's not about widening a road, but about providing multiple access points.You can't always do that but here you can."

Look for a public hearing in December

A public hearing on the county portion of the bypass will take place in December, Kirven said.

At present, the county bypass remains a proposal — though a well-researched and strongly recommended one. Greenville County residents can learn more about all the options and leave their comments by visiting the South Carolina Department of Transportation's website for the project: http://fixwoodruffroad.com.

"We are always working with DOT to make the priority congestion relief and safety and to put the dollars as many, as we have, in those projects," Kirven said.

In a four-year period, the study area for Woodruff Road, from Target to Walmart, saw 2,067 crashes — 455 of them with injuries and two of them fatal.

Greenville News writer Eric Connor contributed to this report. Follow Anna B. Mitchell on Facebook or on Twitter @AnnaBard2U.