JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) – After a budget setback in 2024 delayed the project, the Charleton County Finance Committee is expected to award a contract for work to build sidewalks and a crosswalk at Woodland Shores Road and Maybank Highway on James Island.
People living in the area say they have been petitioning leaders for pedestrian improvements for years. Adam Friend founded a neighborhood association that focuses on improvement projects and recently, the group celebrated adding speed humps to Woodland Shores Road.
The ‘Complete Streets’ project plans to put that 8-foot sidewalk along Woodland Shores Drive, onto Maybank Highway to Stefan Drive, and add a midblock crossing of Maybank near Stefan Drive at Terrace Plaza. The work will include a median, pavement marking and drainage as well.
“For it to be 2025 and we’re finally seeing that a bid is being endorsed and going to be signed off on tonight with Gulf Stream is surreal, I guess would be the best word. I’m excited yes, but I’m going to hold out until I see they’re actually breaking ground before I believe this is really happening, but it looks certainly to be coming to fruition which should really help the safety of a lot of us who live on Woodland Shores Road,” Friend says.
County Council is expected to award a more than $3.6 million contract with Gulf Stream construction. Woodland Shores Road catapulted into the public eye after a 2023 hit and run that left Jen Drummond seriously injured. Her neighbors renewed a push for sidewalks, something they say they had wanted for some time. Their efforts have also achieved adding speed bumps since the incident.
“We’d hoped we could have avoided something tragic prior to having this come to fruition, but we fought really hard as a neighborhood. I started this Woodland Shores commission and I think it’s been a really strong grassroots mission, of people just refusing to take no,” Friend says.
Funding is both federal and local for the multi-million dollar project. There is not a set construction start date, but the work is expected to have at least a nine-month timeline once shovels are in the ground. Friend says it’s not perfect since it’s only one side of the road, and the opposite side of their mailboxes for some, but he thanks the local and state leaders who worked on achieving it.
“People have become very ‘Doubting Thomases’ I guess and don’t think it’s really going to happen, so I think we will all be really happy when we see the work in progress,” Friend says.
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Work contract awarded in long-awaited James Island pedestrian project
