Ashley River Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridge

THE LATEST

After months of debate, design changes to the eastern landing include adding the Medical District connection back in, as well as a connection to Brittlebank Park. During Charleston City Council’s Committee on Traffic & Transportation meeting on November 26, 2024, Mayor Cogswell presented design refinements to the eastern landing of the bridge, as well as cost estimates and a timeline. You can watch the recording here, or view Live 5 News and WCBD News 2 coverage of the meeting.

The Committee unanimously recommended supporting the proposal, which will go before full council in December 2024 or January 2025. The proposal includes:

a safe design for crossing the slip lane;
a connection from the bike/ped roundabout to the slip lane;
a connection from the bike/ped roundabout to Brittlebank Park.

These design updates will not delay construction of the bridge, which is starting at the western landing. You may have noticed the construction laydown yard is now in place on the West Ashley side!

ONGOING PRIORITY

Through the United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) competitive grant opportunities, the City of Charleston earned a BUILD grant in 2019 to fund a large portion of a separate bicycle and pedestrian bridge south of the existing Ashley River Bridges. Throughout the pandemic, the City diligently worked through the federal permitting process. COVID and supply chain issues caused project delays, cost increases and a subsequent funding deficit. Thankfully, through a collaborative partnership between the City of Charleston, SCDOT, BCDCOG and CHATS leadership team, the necessary additional funds were identified from federal, state, and local sources. This came to fruition by a unanimous vote by CHATS on April 18, 2022. The City also allocated additional local and federal funding through collaboration among City Council and the USDOT. After meeting the first federal obligation deadline, the new Ashley River Bridge was on track to have a design-build contract awarded and construction starting in 2023. Mayor Tecklenburg hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking in the fall of 2023. Beginning in 2024, the project construction had been delayed, with a new goal to begin construction in the summer of 2024. That did not happen, and the public learned that the new mayor was working on design changes.

Our Ashley River Bridge Package

Three major bridge sets connect communities across the Ashley River within Charleston County:

the James Island Connector and Wappoo Cut Bridge
the pair of Memorial and Legare Bridges
the North Bridge to Cosgrove Avenue

None of these bridges are currently safe for people on bike or foot. In less than a decade, at least thirteen people have been injured or killed while walking or biking these bridges. As congestion and costs increase, we must have safe options for all modes of transportation.

As many designs have been studied and debated for these bridges for decades, the need for safe crossings only becomes more urgent. Citizens, business owners, and tourists alike want to travel safely between the peninsula, West Ashley, James Island and North Charleston without having to rely solely on motor vehicles. Job and housing security, as well as public safety, depends upon it.

You can view our work on a Better North Bridge HERE and the Wappoo Cut Bridge HERE. The James Island Connector is more complicated, with no safe pedestrian options allowed by SCDOT, and the latest study from the City on bicycle access HERE.

HISTORY

A safe Ashley River crossing for people on bikes and foot has been debated since the 1920s! In the 1980s, Mayor Riley began asserting that the problem should be solved. Real study began in 2010, with examination of a stand-alone bridge, a cantilevered bridge, and ultimately, conversion of the fourth lane for bicycles and pedestrians on the eastbound bridge (the Legare Bridge). The lane conversion on Legare was chosen as the best option, with the project lead being the City of Charleston, and the design included adding a left turn lane for motor vehicles where the bridge touches down at the intersection of Bee and Lockwood.

The Legare lane conversion project timeline went as follows:

Left turn lane groundbreaking (February 12, 2016)
Left turn lane installation (Completed April 1, 2016)
Lane closure test period (February 2 — Early May, 2016)
Charleston County releases test results (June 2016)
Charleston City Council re-affirms support (July 19, 2016)
Charleston County Council requests SCDOT weigh in on structural integrity of the bridge, 60-day deadline (September 20, 2016)

Charleston County Council officially voted to rescind support of the project on August 17, 2017, despite widespread public support, and at least three major bicycle crashes occurring during the year. The City of Charleston, as project lead, still supported the project, but was ultimately overridden by SCDOT.

Charleston Moves, Charleston County, the City of Charleston and project consultants convened to decide next steps. Consulting engineers asserted that the James Island Connector could not be cantilevered, and that the SCDOT would not allow pedestrians in the Connector’s breakdown lane. Project cost estimates of a stand-alone bridge adjacent to the Legare Bridge proved to be similar to a cantilevered design with a stand-alone portion along the bridge’s bascule (drawbridge). In October 2017, the City of Charleston and Charleston County approved matching funds ($1.5M and $3M, respectively) for a federal TIGER grant application to fund a stand-alone bike and pedestrian bridge. Charleston Moves helped gather support letters (totaling more than 80) and other documentation to assist with the application. Unfortunately, the grant was not approved.

In July 2018, the City of Charleston and Charleston County recommitted their matching funds for a new round of the federal grant application, now called the BUILD grant. Charleston Moves again assisted with support letters. For the second year, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) did not select the Ashley River Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge as a priority project for funding.

For a third time, the City and County recommitted funding and applied for a USDOT BUILD grant. Working together, we collected 222 support letters from businesses, organizations and elected officials. On November 6, 2019, the City of Charleston was officially awarded $18.149M in federal funding to construct a standalone bike/ped bridge over the Ashley River. With a local match from the City, County, and MUSC (secured before the application was submitted in July), the total funds for the project come to around $23M, and the scope includes 3 intersection upgrades to ensure safe access to/from the bridge: Bee/Lockwood, Folly/West Ashley Greenway, Wappoo/West Ashley Greenway.

West Ashley is the City’s largest residential population, and the peninsula is the largest employment center. The route is identified as a priority in the West Ashley Plan, People Pedal CHS, Battery2Beach and the East Coast Greenway.