Michael's Weblog

Now (well, once the novelty of crossing the new bridge for kicks subsides) we'll see just how bad the bottlenecks of Charleston and Mt Pleasant really are. The bridge itself can handle the load, but during the afternoon retreat, heading to Mt Pleasant could still be a pain.

I can see some of the downtown mess being a bit better due to the location of the bridge. There will actually be two lanes of Mt Pleasant traffic before getting to the bridge versus just one from the crosstown. Also Meeting street, I-26, and East bay all have entrances which are spread apart and should allow easier merging.

Mt Pleasant on the other hand isn't much different than it was. There are (or I should say will be) four full lanes versus four lanes merging into three lanes out of Mt Pleasant (two from from Coleman and two from 17). They are currently working to get the Highway 17 entrance ramp ready. Wingo way will be completed in the next month or two and will allow traffic from Mathis Ferry to merge into the 17 traffic. Mathis Ferry currently has a light at an intersection which seems better to me (although a turn lane would be nice and easily accomplished). I guess we'll see. Coming into Mt Pleasant won't be much better if you live in the direction Mt Pleasant is moving (out 17) or even off of Mathis Ferry (that'd be me). The same two lanes dump into 17. The two new lanes go to Coleman. So if you take Coleman (which I'd gamble to say is a fairly small percentage), you'll be better off. If you take 17, your in the same boat you were before. Several miles of two lanes and lots of lights. Although a third lane for some of it seems to be in the works, I think it will be a while before the new bridge is retrofitted with a third exit lane to 17. Which means the bottleneck at the base of the bridge will continue to be a problem for some time.

I digress.

Even though I really enjoyed driving over the narrow two-lane 'roller-coaster' bridge, I'll enjoy my new eight wider lanes at 55 mph or so. Whatever problems we continue to have won't be nearly as bad. If your car stalls going over this bridge, your car has issues. Now we can simply go around you. And when we do get stuck..the view is even better and less obstructed that it was before.