Widending Highway 183

Most have read about the county project to widen Highway 183 from the Greenville County line to Highway 135. This was not a bad decision, but I didn’t vote for it, as there was more to it. This is a $110 million project and about $20 million is being funded by the county government and county transportation committee.

There are two unrelated issues here. One, the DOT is in the middle of a 10 year plan to repave its state highways. 183 from Greenville to Pickens needs to be repaved badly. The DOT is starting that this year, repaving from the Greenville line to the Super Stop.

The DOT repaved sections of five highways last year in Pickens County. They’re repaving sections of five highways this year. Next year, so far they announced they’ll repaving sections of three highways.

Second, the state taxes us and is responsible to maintain state owned roads. The DOT is widening highways all over the state. The county asked the DOT to widen 183. The DOT turned down the request because: a) it lacked the traffic volume, b) lacked the commercial establishments, c) it saw 123 in Clemson and Highway 8 in Easley has a higher priority in Pickens County.

Our local leaders didn’t like that answer, so they cobbled together millions in state and county money to widen parts of 183. When they asked the county to borrow $12.5 million to widen this state road, I voted “No”.

I support the state paying for and repaving 183 pronto — that’s their job, but I oppose the county paying and going into more debt to widen a state road the state is responsible for.

The state just raised your gas tax from 16 cents to 28 cents, with the promise to maintain state roads. Hold them to that promise.

Look at where the housing of future subdivisions are being built… 1,622 new houses around Highway 8. Zero along that section of Highway 183. If you had to do this, Highway 8 coming out of Anderson would have been the first choice to widen.

I’m sure you’ve heard Highway 183 is the most dangerous road in Pickens County, the upstate and even some have said the state. I had my doubts and examined the root of that claim. I looked at the original project application for state funds and Attachment C stated, “SC-183 is the 2^nd or 3^rd most dangerous road in SC”.

They looked at fatality data from 2011 to 2015 that compared the most dangerous stretch of Highway 183 (only 7 miles) with entire roads throughout the upstate and state. Naturally, the MOST DANGEROUS subsection of any highway is going to be more dangerous than the averages of entire highways. An apples to oranges comparison. Those who say the road is one of the most dangerous never bothered to examine the data or how it was manipulated, and just repeated what they read, over and over.

Objective comparisons and recent data doesn’t support Highway 183 is the most dangerous road in the state, upstate or even the Pickens County. Here is Pickens County fatality data from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. From 2019 to the start of 2024, on Highway 123 there was 21 fatalities. Highway 183 had 9 fatalities. US 178 had 7 fatalities. Given those highways are about the same length (26 miles), Highway 123 is much more deadly.

For injury data, the most recent 5-year period is from 2018 to 2023. Highway 123 had 172 incidents with an injury and/ or fatality; Highway 183 had 90; Highway 93 had 86 and Highway 178 had 74 incidents with an injury and/ or fatality. One death or injury is always too many, but the public was misled on this, as Highway 183 isn’t even the most dangerous road in our county, let alone the upstate or state.

Finally, I felt widening Highway 183 will usher in a new wave of growth in northern Pickens County, putting even more stress on limited infra-structure up there, scenic quality of life and wildlife too.

By the way, the notion this is going to be completed soon is misleading: 1) They have to do a traffic and safety study. 2) Design it. It will mostly be adding turn lanes and will not be 4 lane throughout. 3) Then they have to buy the ROWs. 4) Then put out for bid. 5) Then construct it. The estimates for completion are 6 to 8 years.