The community-led Transportation Advisory Committee met Wednesday, March 18, and continued gathering information and prioritizing a list of transportation-related projects for consideration in the November referendum. 

The purpose of this meeting was to get input from the City of Beaufort on their project lists.  Last week they heard from HHI on their project list, before that was Bluffton then before that was Port Royal. They have now heard from all of the municipalities and will start compiling priority projects.

Beaufort County School District Chief Operating Officer Robert Oetting gave a brief overview of current capital needs, the challenges facing the school district and how they are handling the growing population of students primarily south of the Broad. He also acknowledged the challenge in finding qualified bus drivers, the delays due to traffic which leads to longer bus riding time for students and in some cases late arrivals to drop off students. Watch Mr. Oetting's presentation here.

Next, Eric Claussen, Assistant City Manager for city of Beaufort, gave an update on the number of new apartment complexes and residential homes and the impact the additional people and traffic have in the city limits. He emphasized one of the top concerns city officials have is the evacuation routes from St. Helena and the Sea Islands during hurricanes. Mr. Claussen noted that Beaufort welcomes more than 2 million visitors who, in addition to the number of new residential community members, are a major evacuation concern. Also discussed were the three traffic choke points impacting daily commutes with the number of cars, but the additional stress of increased accidents on: the downtown swing bridge (US21/Sea Island Parkway), Parris Island Gateway, and the Lady's Island Corridor. Watch Mr. Claussen's presentation here.

Members of the Transportation Advisory Committee will continue to go back to their districts to listen to residents' concerns and suggestions of traffic-related issues then compile as comprehensive a list as possible with special attention being paid to cost and project scope and size--which will then be submitted to County Council for referendum consideration.

The next meeting will be working community meeting Wednesday, April 1, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at a location south of the Broad to be announced. The public is invited to attend.

Meetings will be held at locations around the County so they will be convenient for everyone to be able to attend at least one. The deadline for the committee to submit a final recommendation of projects to County Council for consideration is Monday, May 11. The meeting schedule voted on by the TAC can be found here.

All committee information, projects and priorities can be found at beaufortcountypenny.com.

To watch the meeting in its entirety, click here.