The subcommittee of the Augusta Regional Transportation Study unanimously voted Thursday to amend the Transportation Improvement Program to include the proposed widening of University Parkway, with $10.6 million available for funding.
- The subcommittee agreed to amend the 2035 long-range transportation plan and fiscal year 2015-18 transportation-improvement program to include the University Parkway widening project by adding funding of $4.6 million provided by the state and $6 million provided by the City of Aiken and Aiken County.
- The widening project would stretch from Richland Avenue West to the Robert M. Bell Parkway to University Parkway.
- Current designs for the project include widening the existing two-lane roadway to a five-lane section and adding a raised landscaped median, bike lanes and sidewalks, according to the project's advanced planning report. The project would also include a stoplight at the Trolley Run Station entrance and a proposed roundabout at the intersection of University Parkway and Trolley Line Road, thus deleting the stoplight.
In other business:
- The subcommittee unanimously agreed to re-rank and justify the Hitchcock Parkway corridor improvements project from long- to short-term into the Augusta Regional Transportation Study fiscal year 2015-18 transportation improvement program.
- Initial plans to expand the 118 Bypass were stalled in September 2014, after it was announced the City was $8 million short on funds. The project will now consist of corridor projects, which SCDOT will have to re-analyze, looking to add potential turning lanes, signals, passing lanes, acceleration and deceleration lanes.
- The subcommittee voted 3 to 2 to remove the Whiskey Road drainage improvements project from the fiscal year 2015-18 transportation improvements program.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchechter.