Editor's note: The Aiken Standard will continue updates on Aiken's road projects throughout the week. Today's article is about the proposed Christee Place extension road that would tie Dougherty Road to the Aiken Mall via the Publix sopping center.
A road project proposed to alleviate Whiskey Road traffic congestion going into the Publix Shopping Center and the Aiken Mall area appears to have met a dead end.
City officials hoped they would be able to make room for a connector road from Christee Place into the Publix Shopping Center, by a service road, with the recent sale of the 911 Murrah Ave. property off Dougherty Road.
That home was sold to S&C Properties for $32,000, after a 6-to-1 Council vote. Council member Lessie Price voted against the sale.
Rick Toole, with Augusta-based company Toole Engineers, handles plans for several road projects throughout the City of Aiken, including Christee Place.
Toole told Council on Monday that plans for the road are 80 percent complete, but now there are issues with securing the needed easements.
" ... It looks like we've committed and put a lot of resources into it (the project) without doing some of the agreements we might should've had in place," Council member Philip Merry said. "I'm not putting it on you (Toole), some of the understanding with private property owners should have been done before we committed other resources."
Officials proposed that a portion of the connector road into Publix would also lead into the Aiken Mall. A connector diverting traffic from Whiskey Road by tying Dougherty Road to the Aiken Mall is at the top on the City's Capital Project Sales Tax summary as of March 1. That project had a budget of $350,000, and to date, about $207,000 of funds are available.
Reportedly, City officials have met resistance twice in letters from the Publix shopping center's owners. Glenn Parker, the City's Capital Project Sales Tax manager, said the owners were concerned about the existing congestion mixed in with future traffic problems.
"Wow; we're just at a dead end," said Council member Dick Dewar, referring to the letters. "We purchased a piece of property that we can't do anything with."
Parker said at this point, Council and staff need to make a decision of how to move forward, whether by proposing to connect Christee Place with the roundabout or creating a road connector to the Aiken movie theater on East Gate Drive where the City does not own any property.
Absent any dramatic change to the project, Merry asked Toole whether the project was at the end of the line in options. Toole said, "Yes."
"That's shameful, really," Merry said.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchechter.