Delays are expected to continue as flagging operations are coming this week along Highway 21 over the Harbor River Bridge beginning Monday, January 6 through Friday, January 17, from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
According to a release by Beaufort County, bridge beams will begin arriving onsite on Monday, January 6th, and drivers are being asked to please use caution when operating vehicles in the work zone lane closures and to pay special attention to the large delivery trucks entering and exiting the project site.
Motorists traveling near the construction zones are also asked to be aware of equipment and crews, new and changing traffic patterns and to comply with traffic control signs and reductions in speed limits.
The current swing bridge was built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt New Deal to put people to work during the Great Depression. The project is set to remove the old swing bridge and replace it with a fixed span bridge, more akin to what the McTeer Bridge connecting Port Royal and Lady’s Island looks like. (see below)
SCDOT started the process back in March of 2017 and plans to replace the bridge along Sea Island Parkway with major construction to consist of removing the existing bridge and to construct a new bridge as well as major work including the associated road and drainage work necessary to tie the new approaches to the existing roadway.
Plans are for the project to take three years to complete. Right now, we’re only about one year into the massive construction project.
