Hitchcock proposal is 37 years in the making

By the time it’s completed, the widening of Hitchcock Parkway will be pushing 40 years old.

In 1975, the Aiken Area Transportation Study (AKATS) proposed scores of road changes, improvements and additions to offset the traffic congestion, be it perceived or predicted.

Among those recommended changes: widening the stretch of Hitchcock Parkway from Silver Bluff Road to Highway 1 to four lanes. Thirty-seven years later, it appears the project is finally under way with a funding commitment from the South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Bank to the tune of $9 million.

Numerous community leaders served on the study panel, including then-City Manager Roland Windham and then-Mayor H. Odell Weeks. Eric Thompson, who at the time served as the planner for the Lower Savannah Regional Planning and Development Council, recalls that the group’s efforts to work with the Department of Transportation to identify and present roadway solutions. The signs of the Southside growth were clear in the study, which was reflected in the lengthy report of recommended changes.

“Silver Bluff and Whiskey Road were obviously beginning to grow,” he said.

Many of the projects involved tweaks for improvement – minor widening or curb work. Others were more dramatic. Among a handful of the changes in the 1975 proposal:

Projects that have since been completed

– Extend S.C. Highway 118 from Trolley Line Road to U.S. Highway 1.

– Expand to four lanes U.S. Highway 1 between S.C. Highway 118 and I-20

– Adding a left-turn lane from South Boundary to Whiskey Road

Projects that never came to fruition

– Expand to four lanes S.C. Highway 19 N. from Hampton Avenue to I-20.

– Construct a two-lane connector from Laurens Street to Mead Avenue by extending Laurens for approximately one block beyond Coker Spring Road, and then running east parallel with Berrie Road (on the southern border of Hopelands). That project also called for “horse tunnels” equestrian crossing.

– Expand to four lanes Whiskey Road from Mead Avenue south to the current four-lane stretch.

– On Richland Avenue, add left-turn-only lanes at Laurens Street.

To see the 1975 article and the myriad suggested road changes, visit www.aikenstandard.com to download a pdf.

Michael Gibbons is the managing editor of the Aiken Standard. He was born and raised in Aiken but was only 2 when this proposal came out in 1975, so he was probably not much help on the study.

See the AKATS proposal as illustrated in the Aiken Standard in 1975.