Delays are expected to continue as flagging operations are coming this week along Highway 21 over the Harbor River Bridge from Butches Road to Harbor Drive beginning Monday, July 15th through Friday, July 19th, from 7am to 5:30pm.
Motorists already experience a delay on either side of the bridge with lane closures due to construction vehicles and equipment moving in and out of the construction site.
Motorists traveling near the construction zones are asked to be aware of equipment and crews, new and changing traffic patterns, and to comply with traffic control signs, reductions in speed limits and posted message info.
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 8 months into the construction project.
