Centre Pointe Development Area Audit

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In September 2023, the Charleston Moves team joined City of North Charleston staff and their consultants, as well as the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) and Charleston County on a Road Safety Audit (RSA) of the Centre Pointe development area, including International Boulevard, Centre Pointe Drive, Tanger Outlet Boulevard, Top Golf Way and Veras Way. The intent of the RSA was to gather, consolidate and prioritize preliminary safety findings. 

With the enormous amount of development underway in this area, in addition to regular activities at the Coliseum and trips to the Outlets, vulnerable road users are currently not being accommodated. This project also has the potential to link up with Charleston County’s Airport Connector Road, which spans International Boulevard from just east of the I-526 interchange to Michaux Parkway. The plans include a multi-use path.

Some of the comments we provided to the team included:

  • If a bike/ped/transit circulation study cannot be incorporated into this audit process/list of recommendations, at the least, we need to have origin-destination data for the CARTA stops to see if smaller/location-specific connections for vulnerable road users throughout the site need to be addressed.
  • All crosswalks (across the roads within this study and at side street approaches) need to be upgraded to high-visibility, ladder-style.
  • Vegetation along sidewalks is overgrown — need landscape management. The crossings at major intersections (including at the pork chops) are filled with sediment and debris. 
  • There is a total lack of human-scaled lighting. There are tall lights in the medians, but those do not serve people on the sidewalk. Suggest a lighting study be conducted. 
  • Many pushbutton signs are faded and/or entirely missing. The buttons themselves are broken off and missing at International/Darius Rucker.
  • There’s a multi-use path along International from Darius Rucker to Coliseum. There needs to be a plan to extend this to a point that makes sense, and potentially tie into the Airport Connector Road project. 
  • Need wayfinding throughout the study area.
  • Curbs need to be added where missing.
  • Pedestrian facilities (sidewalks, intersection markings) need to be added.. 
  • Remove slip lanes at major intersections. Where removal isn’t feasible, add reflective paint around pork chops to improve pedestrian safety. In particular, pedestrians have trouble crossing the slip lane from the interstate onto Tanger Outlet Blvd — is this an opportunity for a mid-block crossing at Aloft? 
  • Tighten turning radii at all major intersections. 
  • Expand space for pedestrians to queue at the light on the sidewalk (to give more space between people and turning vehicles) at all major intersections.
  • Add leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs) at all major intersections, particularly around Savings Street.
  • Fill sidewalk gap near CARTA stop past Aloft, including at the bus stop, headed towards International Blvd.  If this cannot be accomplished, the CARTA stop needs to be relocated where pedestrian facilities exist.
  • Existing medians and turn lanes are chaotic along Centre Pointe — turn lanes appear then disappear, median is inconsistent and the width varies drastically, and there’s a complete lack of pavement markings. All this contributes to erratic lane changing and dangerous, unpredictable behavior on the part of motorists, which further puts people walking and biking at risk.
  • There are far too many driveways along Centre Pointe. Needs access management — ingress/egress should be consolidated.
  • Motorists do not stop at side street stop signs. They roll through the stop bar and fail to give people in the crosswalk the right of way. 
  • Detectable warning surfaces are outdated and broken — need to take an inventory and update.
  • Intersection of Centre Pt. / Tanger Outlet Blvd — the pedestrian signals take a very long time, to the point of causing pedestrian uncertainty and pedestrians crossing against traffic. 
  • All crosswalks (across the roads within this study and at side street approaches) need to be upgraded to high-visibility, ladder-style.
  • Near Zaxby’s, the easiest access to the bus stop across the street is to cut across the median without a formal crossing. Consider adding a mid-block crossing here. 
  • The sidewalk along International Blvd could use a buffer from the traffic, and is narrow and overgrown. 

So far, the City of North Charleston has not proceeded with incorporating any recommendations from the audit.