Source: The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)
Charleston City Council has approved a nearly $1.9 million plan to build a tunnel under Maybank Highway to protect golfers.
Some council members were upset by the cost, but city officials said there's no good alternative for separating golfers and traffic on the busy four-lane road that divides Charleston Municipal Golf Course.
"We see the tunnel as essential," Mayor Joe Riley said.
Nearly $1.1 million of the project cost will come from the city, in the form of a no-interest loan to the golf course. The S.C. Department of Transportation will pay $823,000. By eliminating lighting in the tunnel and some flood-protection measures, the construction contract approved Tuesday was trimmed by $206,661 from the lowest bid the city received, but the project will still cost far more than first estimated.
"If I could find a way to do it for five dollars, believe me, I would," said golf course manager Herb Whetsell. "This, unfortunately, is the answer."
Councilman Robert George and Henry Fishburne voted against the more than $1.5 million construction contract for TIC - The Industrial Co., and the nearly $1.9 million project budget. "We are building a tunnel that is arguably below the water table," George said.
Councilman Larry Shirley said that without the tunnel, golfers would have no safe way to get from the 9th green to the 10th tee, and back from the 14th green to the 15th tee.
"We've got a situation that could be life-threatening," said Shirley, a member of the Golf Commission.
He said there's a misperception that money is being spent for the benefit of the well-to-do.
"These are not old, fat, rich white men," Shirley said. "They are blacks and whites, and all different classes of people."
Charleston Municipal opened in 1929, when Maybank Highway was a sleepy country road. The course was integrated in 1961, following a three-year civil rights protest and a court decision.
Then-Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard pushed unsuccessfully for the construction of two pedestrian overpasses when Maybank Highway was widened in 1974, and the city has been trying ever since to solve the riddle: How does the golfer cross the road?
In 2000, the state launched a $55 million upgrade of the bridge that takes Maybank Highway traffic over the Stono River to Johns Island. Riley then revisited the road-crossing issue, arguing that the bridge made the road even more dangerous for golfers.
The DOT initially refused to provide funding for the proposed tunnel, despite the recommendation of the Charleston Area Transportation Study policy committee, but later reversed its decision.
George and others have asked why golfers couldn't cross Maybank Highway at Riverland Drive, where there is a stoplight.
Whetsell said there have been 61 accidents at that intersection since 2001, including three in which vehicles ended up near the 11th tee. The intersection is hardly safe for cars, much less golf carts, he said.
The city expects the golf course to repay the nearly $1.1 million loan from annual profits but has set no timetable. As of Sept. 1, the golf course showed a net profit of $1,304 for the year.