HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) – Part of the South Carolina Highway 707 widening project has been completed near the Socastee and Burgess communities, but some residents in a neighborhood say the new traffic pattern doesn’t go far enough.
Some people living in Tern Hall Plantation say the wider road doesn’t make it any safer for them to leave their area.
“We’ve been dealing with this for five years, so we’ve kind of had enough, especially with the school year starting,” said Dorie Davidson, who lives in Tern Hall Plantation.
Four lanes and a center turning lane opened on about five miles of highway 707 last week.
While the widening continues further south, Tern Hall Plantation residents like Davidson say all those lanes make it difficult to safely drive on to highway 707.
“I think it’s particularly an issue for people heading north out of our community,” Davidson said.
Davidson and other neighbors met with Rep. Heather Crawford, R-Socastee, and Cam Crawford, a Republican who represents Socastee on Horry County council, to ask for a traffic light at Tern Hall’s main entrance.
Cam Crawford says it would allow the people living in hundreds of homes make safer left turns.
“I think that will help the residents negotiate better the increased traffic that the area has experienced,” Cam Crawford said.
While Davidson says while more can be done, she’s glad crews finished part of highway 707 before school resumed.
“It was only going to be impacted that much more with the buses going out in the morning and coming home in the afternoon,” she said.
Cam Crawford says a traffic study needs to be done before a light could be put at the intersection.
The county says that study would have to wait until the entire highway 707 widening project finishes, which is expected by the end of November.
