It’s not easy to walk from Main Street to Heritage Green in downtown Greenville.
Pedestrians and cyclists must encounter fast-moving traffic and narrow sidewalks to reach their destination.
The four-lane section of College and Buncombe Streets separating these areas is known as the Cultural Corridor. The road is owned by the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
“One of the most unmet needs in our downtown is to provide greater pedestrian connectivity between Main Street and Heritage Green,” Mayor Knox White has said.
To improve the issue, the city of Greenville is completing a $4.3 million roadway project along the corridor. A groundbreaking for the project was held on Dec. 14.
The city hired the engineering firm HDR to design the improvement project which, includes street resurfacing, landscaping, multiuse paths, traffic signal upgrades and new street lighting.
The number of lanes along the roadway will also be reduced from four to three lanes. The city hopes to slow down traffic by narrowing the lanes and adding trees.
White explained the project will help expand downtown to incorporate Heritage Green, which includes the Greenville Theatre, Hughes Main Library and several museums.
“This has been an aspirational project for at least a decade,” White said. “It’s long overdue that we addressed this. I think it’s one of the most important – from a design standpoint – steps we need to take in downtown Greenville.”
The city’s Downtown Master Plan and the Downtown Traffic Master Plan recommended pedestrian access and connectivity improvements along the corridor. The project also aims to revitalize economic growth and encourage drivers to utilize Academy Street to bypass downtown.
To fund the project, the city received $6 million from the state.
The city’s portion of the Cultural Corridor project is expected to be completed by late 2024. The remainder of the project will be completed as part of the Canvas multi-use building project in 2024.
The leftover $1.7 million in state funds will go towards the Academy Bypass project which is currently ongoing. Beth Brotherton, the city’s spokesperson, explained the construction of the bypass is multiphase and the roadway section from Church to Academy Streets is complete.
“Overnight on Dec. 18 and 19, they will add a right turn lane on East North (Street) at Academy to encourage traffic to veer off rather than going through downtown when possible,” Brotherton said.
A traffic light will also be removed at West Elford Street to move traffic down Academy Street. Retiming of traffic signals along the new bypass has already been completed.
Traffic numbers
The Cultural Corridor sees an estimated average of 13,400 vehicles per day.
