The four-lane roadway will be reduced to three lanes from Augusta Street to Henrydale Avenue near the Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital. The city’s neighborhood infrastructure bond will fund the project which aims to slow traffic and enhance pedestrian safety. 

Read more about the Grove Road project

Roadway repairs began Jan. 14. According to the city, lane closures will occur over the next three to four months as the work is completed. In the spring, the entire roadway will be repaved and high-visibility crosswalks and other safety enhancements will be installed.

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The 60,000-square-foot facility consolidates the public transportation system’s administration, dispatch and maintenance services under one roof. Construction of the facility began in 2023 and cost more than $50 million to complete.

A ribbon cutting for Greenlink’s new facility at 205 Arcadia Drive was held Dec. 18. James Keel, Greenlink’s director of public transportation, explained maintenance staff moved into the new facility on Monday.

The larger space was built to replace Greenlink’s landlocked maintenance facility in downtown Greenville. The old property at 106 and 154 Augusta St. is currently on the market. The new facility includes seven maintenance bays, two service bays, 10 natural gas fueling stations and 16 electric bus chargers. 

Greenlink staff also have access to a fitness center, multiple break areas and a quite room at the new facility. Keel believes the new space and amenities will help with the organization’s workforce recruitment and retention. 

With the new facility, Greenlink plans to expand its transit services to meet the growing needs of residents in Greenville County. Amanda Warren, board chair for the Greenville Transit Authority, said there has been an exponential growth in transit ridership across Greenville County since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Greenlink intends to launch 17 new bus routes, implement a Sunday service schedule, increase route frequencies and decrease customer wait times. The expansion plans are outlined in the organization’s transit development plan created in 2018. 

“The completion of this maintenance facility successfully removes any capital barriers that would’ve prevented these plans from becoming a reality,” Warren said. 

The maintenance and operations facility sits on 26.5 acres of land on Arcadia Drive which once housed the former Washington High School in the New Washington Heights neighborhood. Greenville County donated the property to the Greenville Transit Authority in August 2020. 

Federal, state and local dollars were used to fund the new facility. Greenlink received a $11 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The city of Greenville also appropriated $1.4 million for the project. Greenville Mayor Knox White said the new facility is one of the great successes for Greenville County in the last 10 years. 

“It’s a new day for Greenlink and a new day for Greenville,” White said. 

Exponential growth

Across Greenville County, there has been an exponential growth in transit ridership since the COVID-19 pandemic. Amanda Warren, board chair for the Greenville Transit Authority, said that from January 2021 through August 2024:

• Fixed ridership has increased by 34%
• Paratransit ridership has increased by 125%

Expanding operations

James Keel, Greenlink’s director of public transportation, said the new maintenance and operations facility will allow the transit system to grow from operating 17 buses to 43 buses.

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The South Hudson Street bridge near Unity Park and the West Washington Street bridge were damaged during Hurricane Helene. Flooding caused the foundations of both structures to erode and the bridges have been closed since late September. 

Greenville City Council approved a resolution during its Nov. 26 meeting to allow the South Carolina Department of Transportation to perform emergency bridge replacements to both structures. The bridges were added to the state’s accelerated replacement schedule. 

Read more about the bridge projects

According to the resolution, SCDOT plans to complete the project by the end of 2025. The work must be completed within the next year to be eligible for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster reimbursement funding.

The existing bridges will be removed and replaced. The new South Hudson Street bridge will have connection improvements to the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail. The West Washington Street bridge will be replaced with a wider structure to allow for future bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

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The low-income housing tax credit program provides tax credits to developers who create affordable housing. Bryan Brown, CEO of the Greenville Housing Fund, said the program partially finances 90% of all new affordable housing construction in the U.S.

Southernside Senior Living, a $32 million affordable housing development near Unity Park, was awarded a 9% federal low-income housing tax credit. The Greenville Housing Fund is partnering with Harmony Housing Affordable Development to develop the project. 

Construction is set to begin in 2025. The development will consist of 147 rental units for seniors earning 20% to 60% of the area median income. Phase one will include 93 units. Fifty-five project-based vouchers will be available for households earning below 30% AMI. 

The Alliance, a $38 million mixed-use development in Greenville, received both a federal and state low-income housing tax credit. The project is being developed by NHE, a Greenville-based property management company.

Located at the corner of Laurens and Ackley roads, the project will consist of two, four-story buildings with 100 affordable units, serving households earning below 60% of the AMI. Taylor Davis, president of NHE, said construction is hoped to begin in the second quarter of 2025 and take around 20 months to complete. 

The final project in Greenville to receive a 9% federal low-income housing tax credit was the Greenville Summit, an existing affordable housing building for seniors in downtown Greenville. The property owner, JE Properties, plans to complete a rehabilitation project for the 100-year-old building.

The project will include renovating the residential units, replacing old pipes, upgrading the building’s facade, installing a new elevator and more. Joseph Eddy, president of JE Properties, said renovations should be underway by May. 

JE Properties also plans to build an eight-story addition next to the Greenville Summit to add more affordable senior housing apartments. The property owner applied for an additional LIHTC, however, it was not awarded to the project. 

Read more about local affordable housing projects

Initial approval: Funding for Southernside and Viola Multi-Service Centers

The city of Greenville plans to rebuild the Southernside Multi-Service Center and the Viola Multi-Service Center. Both buildings will be demolished to construct two new facilities to use for community gatherings, afterschool programs and more.

The cost to construct and furnish the multi-service centers is estimated to be $2.4 million. Approximately $858,057 in funding has previously been allocated to both projects. 

Council gave initial approval during its Nov. 11 meeting to appropriate $1.57 million from the capital projects fund to cover the remaining cost of reconstructing both multi-service centers. This funding was collected from the former Viola Tax Increment Financing fund which ended in 2022. 

JonScot General Contractors was awarded the contract to rebuild the Southernside Multi-Service Center in October. According to the city, construction of the new center is expected to start in early 2025. The Viola Multi-Service Center will soon go out to bid for a contractor to complete the project. 

Update: Debris pickup in Greenville

Greenville City Manager Shannon Lavrin announced that more than 327,445 cubic yards of vegetative waste – over 6,000 loads – have been picked up within the city due to Hurricane Helene. Over 88,185 cubic yards have been ground and shipped to a mulch processor. 

The second pass of debris pickup is currently ongoing throughout the city. This is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving. The collections of larger stumps will also begin this week. 

The city’s debris pickup contractor, Crowder Gulf, will begin the final pass on Monday, Dec. 9. All debris in need of pickup must be on the curb by that day.

Read more about the city’s debris pickup

Additional items

• Council postponed the vote on the annexation and zoning of approximately 1.85 acres of property on Guess, Orr and Seth streets. The site is proposed to be zoned RN-C, Neighborhood C District, to allow for the development of 11 to 13 townhomes. 
• Council gave initial approval of an amendment to the city’s business license ordinance that would allow the city manager to appoint a hearing officer. This individual would be responsible for hearing appeals of business license denials and suspensions.
• Council approved the final reading on an ordinance to temporarily suspend the requirement for a certificate of appropriateness to help expedite the process for property owners to receive a permit for building repairs after Hurricane Helene.

The post Three Greenville affordable housing projects receive tax credits: City Council notes appeared first on GREENVILLE JOURNAL.

The new affordable home will be constructed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County, Habitat for Humanity of Spartanburg and BMW Manufacturing. A wall-raising ceremony was held on Nov. 6 to celebrate the start of construction.

Max Metcalf, BMW’s manager of government and community relations, said the company is proud to continue its partnership with Habitat for Humanity to support the important work the agency does in the community.

“It’s an honor to work alongside the Habitat affiliates once again to not only build a house for a deserving family, but provide hope and opportunity to our community. Together, we are creating a better future for those who need it most,” Metcalf said. 

The new affordable housing will be purchased by a participant of Habitat’s homeowner-preparation program. This program includes courses on personal finance, budgeting, mortgages and credit. The prospective homeowner also must be willing to complete a minimum of 200 hours of volunteer work with Habitat. 

“Habitat offers an unparalleled opportunity to help families with low income attain homeownership,” said Monroe Free, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County.

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Set to open in August 2027, the new school will be located on 29 acres off U.S. Highway 25 at the intersection of Belvue and Robertson roads. The project is expected to cost approximately $92.5 million to complete.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new school was held Oct. 24. 

The existing Northwest Middle opened in 1973 and serves as the only public middle school in Travelers Rest. The facility was renovated in 1988 and 1990. The school has since become outdated and reached the end of its useful life, according to district officials. 

Superintendent Burke Royster said the new Northwest Middle represents the district’s commitment to fostering academic excellence and preparing students for success. Approximately 1,000 students will be accommodated at the new middle school, an increase from the existing facility’s 800-student capacity. 

“With the opening of this school, we are investing in the future of our students and community,” Royster said. “Our goal is to ensure that every student has access to the best educational resources and opportunities.”

Construction of the new Northwest Middle was included in the district’s 2024 Long Range Facilities Plan-Capital Improvement Program. GCS board of trustees recently approved the architect for the project, Jumper Carter Sease Architects, during its meeting on Oct. 22. 

Royster explained the firm will begin working with the school and district on initial construction documents before moving into the multi-stage design process. The district will also select a construction management at-risk firm and a general contractor during this process. 

“We know that we need to design spaces that are flexible, that can change with the time, and a building in the 1970s really doesn’t do that,” Royster said. “This gives us a chance to build with the future in mind.”

The district will also develop a new instructional program to go along with the new middle school. Daniel Greene, principal at Northwest Middle, said to be able to provide students with the latest facility and greatest technology will only accelerate the work the school’s teachers already do.

“I think this is the next best step for our community,” Greene said.

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Queen Street bridge was constructed in 1927 and crosses over the Norfolk Southern rail line. The city of Greenville is spearheading an effort to replace the bridge, which is owned by the railroad company. City engineers are in the final stages of completing a feasibility study on the bridge. 

Clint Link, director of engineering services, explained the bridge has many maintenance and structural deficiencies. It also features a low load restriction, prohibiting emergency vehicles, trucks and school buses from using the bridge. 

“Through the study, we’ve determined it’s a complete replacement,” Link said. “Replacing it would certainly improve access to these neighborhoods and just connectivity in general.”

The city hired a consultant firm, Mead and Hunt, to help design alignment options for a new bridge. Two options have been released, each featuring 10-foot sidewalks and a custom metal safety fence. Both designs would also increase the bridge’s height to meet current rail line standards and turn Gates Street into a cul-du-sac. 

The first design option includes building a new bridge next to the existing structure and extending Queen Street to intersect with Willard Street. Cain Street would be converted to a cul-de-sac. The other option would construct a new, realigned bridge without extending Queen Street. 

According to the city, the cost and construction timeline of both options are the same. The construction project is estimated to cost between $5 million to $6 million to complete. Link explained they are currently exploring funding options that will be needed for the project’s engineering design and construction stages. 

“We’re going to be looking for some partnerships, some grant opportunities to help us get the project done,” Link said. “This is a project that has been identified on the Greenville County’s capital project sales tax program. So we would love to see that passed and this project get funded through that.”

The city is currently collecting public feedback to determine which option should be selected. The public is invited to submit their comments before Oct. 31 on the city’s website at greenvillesc.gov/2403/Queen-Street-Bridge-Replacement.

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The local nonprofit offers services to children and teens with autism. Susan Sachs, Project Hope’s co-founder and co-CEO, said the foundation’s new location offers a unique opportunity to bring together both diagnosis and treatment of autism. 

GGC provides clinical care, genetic testing and research for patients and families impacted by genetic disorders. The nonprofit’s 191-acre campus is located at 106 Gregor Mendel Circle in Greenwood. Clemson University’s Center for Human Genetics is also located on the campus.

 “Through this partnership, families who receive care from GGC can immediately walk over to see the services we provide, giving them answers and encouragement soon after their child is diagnosed,” said Lisa Lane, Project Hope’s co-founder and co-CEO. 

Steve Skinner, GGC president and CEO, said GGC and Project Hope have a long history of collaboration and a shared mission to provide cutting-edge care for those impacted by autism. 

“We are thrilled to have them on our campus as we expand our partnership to help expedite earlier diagnoses, expand access to services, and work together on research and future clinical trial opportunities,” Skinner said. 

Project Hope’s new building designs and construction timeline are still being finalized. The nonprofit will continue to use its current temporary space in Greenwood as the new building is constructed. 

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New or historic. Big or small. Natural or man-made. Each structure is an identifiable symbol for residents and a destination for visitors. Downtown Greenville is home to many, including Liberty Bridge, the Peace Center and the Medusa Tree.

Honor Tower will soon rise 10 stories above Greenville’s Unity Park, joining that list of local landmarks. A groundbreaking for the long-planned observation tower was held June 11.

The idea for Honor Tower originated in the early planning for Unity Park more than 10 years ago. Greenville Mayor Knox White said the goal was for the tower to be the visible symbol for the park, similar to Liberty Bridge in Falls Park.

“It’s going to be an iconic piece of art in our city,” White said.

The 125-foot tower will include an observation deck at the 99-foot level, offering visitors sweeping views of downtown Greenville and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The deck will be surrounded by screening.

Paul Endres with Endrestudio, a California-based design studio, created the first concepts for the tower in 2016. The tower’s design went through many modifications to decrease its cost. The final design features a wooden outer structure with a contemporary, spiral design. The tower will be internally lit, creating a beacon in the heart of the park.

“It’s completely unique,” Endres said. “We don’t know of any tower like this anywhere in the world.”

Visitors will be able to climb the tower’s 176-step floating stairway or take the elevator to the observation deck. The elevator will have glass front and rear walls so visitors can view the structure’s interior.

Iconic symbol

Unity Park, which opened in May 2022, sits on the former location of two segregated parks: Mayberry Park and Meadowbrook Park. Honor Tower will be positioned directly between these sites, near the Reedy River.

Mary Duckett, president of Southernside Neighborhoods in Action, said the tower’s placement will symbolize the unification of the area.

Honor Tower’s name pays tribute to military veterans and first responders. White said the city saw a need to create a space where the community could come together for memorials and ceremonies honoring these individuals.

A public ceremonial plaza called the Philip J. Carlton Memorial Plaza will be used to host these events at the tower’s base. Endres said the plaza was designed to host between 150 to 200 people. Gardens will also surround the plaza in a spiraling formation, mimicking the twisting design of the tower.

Project details

Greenville City Council approved a $11 million budget for the tower in June 2022.

Approximately $5.5 million was raised to date from private donors including a $1 million donation from Vivian Wong and her late husband, Thomas. For their donation, the tower’s official name is the Thomas and Vivian A. Wong Honor Tower.

White noted that the tower drew more individual private dollars than any other feature of the park. The remaining balance for the tower will be funded by the city.

Construction of Honor Tower has been underway for the last month with site utilities, grading and foundation work. The tower should take around 14 months to complete. Harper General Contractors is overseeing the tower’s construction.

“The tower is expected to be complete by August 2025,” said Neil Wilson, senior project manager with Harper General Contractors.

While the tower’s construction is underway, work will also soon start on Mayberry Park. The new youth baseball field will be adjacent to the tower. Construction will begin in August and is expected to be completed by spring 2025.

Private donors

Honor Tower

• Thomas and Vivian A. Wong

Observation Deck

• Prisma Health

Plaza

• Sharon and Heather Carlton in memory of Philip J. Carlton
• AT&T

Garden

• The Webster Family — Lanny Webster Garden
• Surendra and Neelima Jain — Ahimsa Garden of Peace
• The McKissick Foundation — Noel P. McKissick Garden
• Jan McCrary — Grand Garden of Hope

U.S. Flag

• Emilie and John Pazdan

Pillar

• AT&T
• Harper Corp.
• Aughtry Family Foundation
• Donna and Bo Gossett
• Prisma Health
• Nancy and Rick Pennell

Steps for Vets

• Southern Tide

Bench

• The Estevez Family
• Jordon Construction
• Lee and Associates
• Proactive MD
• The Taylor Family
• The Yeargin Family

Additional contributors

• The Andre Bauer Family
• Greenville County
• VisitGreenvilleSC

Initial idea

The late Tom Keith, a landscape architect with Greenville’s Arbor Engineering, created the first conceptual renderings in 2006 for what is now Unity Park. Keith also was the lead designer of Falls Park. In his original idea for the park, Keith included a tower that would serve as the park’s iconic symbol. Greenville Mayor Knox White and the city used this idea and community input to create the plan for what is now Unity Park.

Panoramic views

Honor Tower will feature an observation tower at the 99-foot level. Paul Endres with Endrestudio said the observation deck will create a unique experience for the community. The level at which the observation deck was placed was meticulously chosen. Endres said it was a long process that included using lifts and drones to see which height offered the best views.

Related – Unity Park Honor Tower: An interview with architect Paul Endres

“We had views of all of the different elevations, and it was decided that we didn’t want to go any lower than 99 feet or about 100 feet because you wouldn’t have views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and the downtown city,” Endres said.

Tower operations

The Honor Tower observation deck will have specific hours of operation for visitors. There will be a ticket system to ensure there is no overcrowding. Whether there will be an entrance cost for the tower is still up for discussion, according to the city of Greenville.

By the numbers

Total cost: $11 million

Height: 125 feet

Weight: 250,000 pounds

Steps to the observation deck: 176

City leaders and two dozen donors broke ground on the 10-story Thomas and Vivian A. Wong Honor Tower at Unity Park.

The tower will pay tribute to military veterans and First Responders who save lives, keep us safe and make our community a better place to live. pic.twitter.com/dqSAccGhkt

— City of Greenville (@CityGreenville) June 11, 2024

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Century Plaza Apartments, a 212-unit complex in Greenville’s Overbrook neighborhood, recently underwent a more than $5 million renovation to preserve the affordable workforce housing it offers.

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Classified as a Superfund site, parts of the 240-acre property at 3335 Old Buncombe Road contain hazardous material contamination from the site’s previous textile mill operations. High levels of chromium, a toxic chemical, have been found in the property’s soil and groundwater along with asbestos, arsenic and more. 

The property is also known as the US Finishing/Cone Mills site. The Superfund designation allows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to direct or authorize cleanup efforts of contaminated sites.

Cone Mills Acquisition Group in partnership with 13th Floor Investments, Warhaft Group and Atlas Capital Group plans to transform the site into a mixed-use development called “On the Trail GVL.” The more than $2 billion project will include multi-family housing, retail, office, hotel, educational and research campus space. 

A substantial portion of the 240-acre site has been cleared by the EPA for redevelopment. But some areas, especially those around the mill itself, remain contaminated and restricted.

Read more about the Union Bleachery project

The EPA and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) have taken steps to clean up and mitigate hazardous materials on the property. An update was provided during a walkthrough of the site on March 12. Brenda Mallory, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, attended the tour along with representatives from EPA and DHEC. 

The EPA recently awarded $10 million to treat the site’s contaminated groundwater through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Mallory said around $1 billion was made available for more than 100 Superfund sites across the country for cleanup projects. 

Scott Martin, EPA’s Region 4 remedial project manager, said they will use injections to treat the chromium in the groundwater. 

“The groundwater cleanup is expected to start this year,” Martin said. “We will do several rounds of injections to treat the groundwater, and it could take 10 to 15 years to reach the cleanup standards.”

Additional cleanup work to the site’s main facility building will be completed by Cone Mills Acquisition Group LLC on behalf of EPA. Martin said both these efforts will help the site’s redevelopment project to move faster. 

Dean Warhaft, principal of Warhaft Group, said they hope to start redevelopment in the fall of 2024. The project will begin by building the first residential community and redeveloping the property’s old filtration building into a distillery and restaurant. 

Site history

Union Bleachery was built in 1902 as a small mill specializing in bleaching, dying, and finishing textiles. The factory, later owned by Cone Mills Corp., operated from 1903 until it was destroyed by a fire in 2003. 

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Public safety complex

The city’s new public safety complex, at 204 Halton Road, is on track to be completed by July. Renovation costs for the 126,000-square-foot building are $16.1 million.

The six-story complex will consolidate multiple city departments including the headquarters for the Greenville Police Department and Greenville City Fire Department. The municipal court will also move into the complex along with the city’s management and budget department.

Nicholtown Community Center

A $4.3 million renovation and expansion is planned for the Nicholtown Community Center at 112 Rebecca St. Construction is anticipated to begin in August and take one year to complete.

Preliminary designs for the revitalized center are in the process of being created. The city is conducting stakeholder meetings to finalize the plans.

Mayberry Field

Mayberry Field, a new baseball field coming to Unity Park, is currently in the design stage. It will feature grandstand bleachers, batting tunnels, concession stands, dugouts and more.

The $3.5 million project will be completed through a public-private partnership between the city and private donors. Jeff Waters, the city’s senior capital projects manager, said the goal is to have the field finished by early 2025.

Gower Park

Construction of Gower Park’s new pickleball, tennis and basketball courts will be complete by late March. The project cost $1.45 million.

Along with the upgraded courts, the project also includes repaving and restriping Evelyn Avenue, installing new LED court lights and adding three new shade structures and 10 benches.

Cleveland Park courts

Renovations are planned for Cleveland Park’s tennis and basketball courts. The $1.3 million project includes adding two pickleball courts, six new tennis courts and one basketball court. Parking improvements will also be done near the courts.

Designs for the project have been completed. Construction is expected to begin by early spring 2024 and finish by quarter three of 2024.

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The Greenville Alternative Teacher Education program will now be available for those wishing to teach visual or performing arts.

The program offers an innovative pathway to becoming a teacher while helping the school system fill open positions. GCS recently announced it will expand GATE to add teacher certifications in elementary music, art, drama, dance, band and orchestra for the 2024-25 school year.

“We were just noticing that sometimes those fine arts positions are getting harder and harder to fill,” said Candice Moore, the program’s coordinator. “We decided to open this up as a pathway to hopefully help with this hiring needs.”

Program participants make a three-year teaching commitment with GCS while they complete their certification. To be enrolled in the program, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree in a specific teaching field, a minimum 2.5 cumulative GPA and a passing score on the Praxis specialty area content examination.

GATE teachers attend cohort seminars, learning labs, summer institutes and more while completing the program. They also receive one-on-one support from coaches who help them grow in their teaching practices.

Moore explained the program has experienced “astronomical growth” since the first cohort began in 2016.

“We had 10 participants (in 2016). Of course, we only offered math and science certification at that time,” she said. “With our most recent cohort, we had 99 participants and we have math, science, English, social studies, business, world languages, special education, elementary and early childhood.”

Applications are now open for GATE’s 2024-25 school year cohort. For more information, visit greenville.k12.sc.us/Employment/main.asp?titleid=gate_schedule.

Filling positions

Candice Moore, the program’s coordinator, said the program’s participants make up around 25% of the school system’s induction classes. This means a quarter of first-year teachers hired by GCS are GATE teachers.

Leading the way

Greenville County Schools was the first in South Carolina to create a district-based alternative-certification program.

Certification areas

Here is an updated list of the certification areas offered:

• Art
• Band
• Business
• Dance
• Drama
• Early childhood
• Elementary
• English
• French
• Math
• Middle-level English and language arts
• Middle-level math
• Middle-level social studies
• Music
• Orchestra
• Science
• Social studies
• Spanish
• Special education

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South of Mills Avenue, the narrow, four-lane corridor is flanked by many driveways, business entrances and curb cuts. A line of leaning utility poles stands just off the curb, close enough for passing cars to accidentally hit.

The city of Greenville is planning an extensive improvement project along Augusta Street. A major element is burying the power lines along a six-block commercial section between Cateechee Avenue to Faris Road.

Clint Link, the city’s director of engineering services, said completing the undergrounding work will be a challenging but essential process.

“Augusta Street’s been talked about for a long time and undergrounding the lines and relocating the poles has always been a topic of discussion,” Link said. “I’m excited. We finally, you know, have a project to at least address a portion of the road.”

A long-standing issue

Trey Sherman, owner of Greystone Antiques, has been waiting two decades for the city to remove the utility poles and power lines along the busy roadway.

“There’s an absolute mess right there where my store is at the corner of Cateechee and Augusta,” Sherman said. “Where it turns the corner — that telephone pole has been hit twice and then the ones in front of me have been hit a few times.”

Eleven collisions with utility poles occurred along Augusta Street between 2016 and 2020, according to a road safety audit. Removing the utility poles along the corridor would eliminate the safety hazard, clean up the streetscape and provide better reliability from a power supply standpoint.

Charlie McMullen, founder and owner of Blockhouse Restaurant & Oyster Bar, said there is no doubt removing the utility poles and power lines would help make the corridor safer.

“There can’t be anything wrong with pulling those telephone poles off the street,” McMullen said. “They talk about pedestrian safety, but I’m going to tell you, it’s all driver safety. I mean, it’s so easy to knock a mirror off on Augusta Road or hit one of those telephone poles.”

A complex process

Burying utility lines essentially entails creating a duct bank along the edge of the roadway to lay new electrical conduit. Easements must be secured with property owners in order to bury the lines.

“For Augusta Street, we do have very, very limited space at places you know as far as rights of way to acquire,” Link said. “We have kind of got some approvals from SCDOT and from Duke (Energy) where we need to put the duct bank within the road rights of way.”

The burial project is expected to cost up to $8 million to complete. It will include lane closures, night construction work, and ongoing coordination with businesses and property owners along Augusta Street. A construction-staging and traffic-control plan will be created to minimize the impact on the property owners and those driving along the roadway.

“It’s going to cause a huge disruption in my business for customers being able to get in and out, but I think it’s worth it,” said John Freeman, owner of Duncan’s Home Center.

To complete the undergrounding work, the power supply for each building must be reconnected, Link explained. The city will coordinate times with businesses on when power will be shut down in order to do the reconnections.

“We are in a position to start having those conversations (with businesses),” Link said. “We just don’t have a lot of detail to provide them right now as far as the specific schedule and specifically what it will involve for their individual property.”

Communication is key

Many business owners, including Sherman, were unaware until recently of the city’s proposal to complete undergrounding work and other improvements along Augusta Street.

The Augusta Road Business Association held a meeting Nov. 28 for local business owners and residents to learn more about the roadway-improvement project. More than 20 business owners along Augusta Street were in attendance.

“Feedback is what the planning engineers need to continue to mold a concept that will be appropriate for businesses and surrounding residents in the community,” according to a statement by the ARBA board of directors. “We are in agreement that there will be additional meetings in the future, and we invite the community to please attend when that takes place.”

Read more about the Augusta Street improvements project.

Next steps

Greenville City Council recently approved using $5.8 million from a state grant to help fund the project. Link said there are also existing bonds in the city’s undergrounding program that can be used for the project. The program’s funding comes from payments by both the city and Duke Energy.

City engineers are currently working with Duke Energy on the electrical-design portion of the project. Link said they expect to finalize the design and submit a bid for construction by early summer of 2024. Construction is estimated to begin by mid-summer.

“I would say a nine- to 12-month construction schedule, so pretty long,” Link said.

While the undergrounding project focuses on the commercial section of Augusta Street, there will also be some opportunities to bury utility lines in the residential section further south.

“In the residential section of the road, we are doing some cleanup of the existing overhead lines there in that area,” Link said. “It’s not a full-on undergrounding project per se. But we are looking at ways to eliminate (or) reduce the number of utility poles.”

Video below from 2013

Number of collisions

The number of collisions with utility poles along Augusta Street that occurred between 2016 and 2020 according to a road safety audit completed by Stantec Consulting Services.

• 3 along the street’s commercial section
• 8 along the street’s residential section

Map

Utility undergrounding will be completed along a six-block stretch of Augusta Street from Cateechee Avenue to Faris Road.

Full project overview

The second phase of improvements along Augusta Street will affect both the commercial section from Church Street to Faris Road and the residential portion from Cureton Street to Mauldin Road.

Along with the utility underground work, other improvements to the commercial section include:

• Sidewalk upgrades
• Signal improvements
• Access management
• Landscape medians
• A lane reduction in the northbound direction for left turn lanes

Completed projects

Additional utility-undergrounding projects that have been completed throughout the city include:

• Haywood Road
• Unity Park (Hudson, Oscar, Welborn and West Washington streets)

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Named AnMed Piedmont, the more than $35 million facility is expected to open in early 2025. It will be located on a 7.8-acre property on the northwest corner of state Highway 86 and Old Williamston Road. A groundbreaking for the new hospital was held on Oct. 24. 

“It will plant emergency care right in the heart of the I-85 corridor,” said AnMed CEO William Kenley. “It will bring other needed services much closer to people’s homes. It will make it so much easier for so many to be healthier.”

The hospital will help fill the emergency medical care gap found south of Easley across Powdersville, Pelzer and Williamston. Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns said these areas have seen significant population growth in recent years.

“The new facility is coming to the right place at exactly the right time,” Burns said. 

The 40,000-square-foot medical facility will include:

• An emergency room
• Primary care and specialty physician offices
• Physical therapy
• Laboratory and imaging services (X-ray, CT scan and ultrasound)

The facility is expected to created more than 50 jobs. AnMed is the largest private employer in Anderson County.

“We are thrilled that a new, state-of-the-art emergency department is a major component of AnMed Piedmont – because we know that this facility and our team will save lives,” said AnMed Chief Nursing Officer Shaunda Trotter. “It will protect and heal thousands of local families and businesses.”

AnMed and Anderson County are also exploring developing substations for EMS and the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office on the campus. They would include living quarters and an ambulance garage for EMS along with office facilities for the Sheriff’s Office. 

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