Quartz CountertopsNear Johns Island, SC

Trident Medical Center has submitted a Certificate of Need to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to build a $277 million hospital on Johns Island. The application is for a 50-bed acute care hospital between Maybank Highway and Cane Slash Road, across from the Live Oak Square development.

Projections for Johns Island Hospital show that within the first three years it will create nearly 300 jobs, contribute $10 million in non-income taxes to support the community and pay $70 million in salaries, wages and benefits, the organization said in a release.

“We are excited to continue making medical care more accessible to residents in our historically underserved communities,” Trident Health President and CEO Christina Oh said in the news release. “Currently on Johns Island and neighboring communities, it can take residents 30 to 45 minutes to drive to their nearest hospital, and often longer in heavy traffic and inclement weather. Our goal is to increase access to timely, high quality and affordable health care services.”

Trident Medical Center’s chief of the medical staff and medical director of emergency services, Dr. Scott Hayes, said he sees firsthand the results of delayed care.

“For residents who live far from emergency medical care and who may be experiencing a medical emergency like a heart attack or a stroke, minutes can mean the difference between life and death,” he said in the news release. “Access to care close to home is critical, especially in areas like Johns Island and the surrounding communities, that have frequent traffic delays.”

Trident Health surgeon Dr. Thomas Litton, who lived on Johns Island for 20 years and recently moved from there largely due to increasing traffic congestion and limited access routes off the island, said, “The rapid population growth and development of Johns Island, as well as its role as the sole gateway to Kiawah, Seabrook and Wadmalaw Islands, has created a strong need for a full-service hospital in the area. Residents on those islands have never had a full-service hospital. Trident’s hospital on Johns Island and their freestanding ER on James Island will greatly improve residents’ access to much-needed medical care.”

Johns Island Hospital will be located seven miles from James Island Emergency, Trident’s new freestanding ER at 945 Folly Road, Charleston, that will open in the next few weeks.

Plans call for Johns Island Hospital to have 50 beds with space to expand to 150 beds, 40 medical/surgical/stepdown beds, 10 ICU beds, 20 ER rooms, four operating rooms, two endoscopy suites and a cardiac catheterization lab. The hospital also would have two CT scanners, an MRI, two diagnostic radiology suites and a fluoroscopy room.

In addition to the hospital, services would include medical offices for primary care and specialists as well as outpatient imaging and support such as breast imaging, rehabilitation and other outpatient therapy services.

“From our first discussions about building a hospital on Johns Island, we have been committed to creating a thoughtful plan that preserves the natural beauty of Johns Island,” Oh said in the release. “We will honor the strong Gullah Geechee cultures of the community; we will partner with the areas’ community and businesses; and will promote the important and unique contributions of Johns Island’s agricultural community.”

The proposed Johns Island Hospital is in addition to nearly $140M in capital investments currently underway at Trident Health’s hospitals, Trident Medical Center and Summerville

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Those who live on or travel through Johns Island say they have mixed feelings about a new road designed to connect Maybank Highway to two other roadways.

Work is continuing on what is called the Northern Pitchfork, which will connect Maybank Highway to Fenwick Hall Allee and River Road. That work will require lane closures from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday on Maybank Highway at River Road.

Some residents are hopeful it can be part of a solution for what they say is horrendous traffic but others say it’s just a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

There is also frustration surrounding the daytime lane closures for Friday, as residents believe it will be a nightmare, and the work should be done overnight instead.

Charleston County Construction Project Manager Sheila Parker said this has to get done in a specific window of time and they don’t want project delays. The new road is something the city and county have been working on bringing to life for years, with the goal of alleviating congestion and moving traffic along on the island.

“People coming off of James Island onto Johns Island using the Maybank Highway corridor will be able to take the Northern Pitchfork road and kind of bypass the Maybank Highway and River Road traffic light,” Parker explained

Byhira Thorn, who frequents the island often, said she thinks the new road will cause confusion for drivers, and it’s not addressing the root issue.

“I think another lane in general needs to be added,” Thorn said. “I mean, they did it with the bridge which was awesome, but they need to do it with the island. The island itself all around, roads need to be doubled for sure.”

Johns Island resident Kristin Nolan said she hopes this will help, but wishes it was done sooner.

“First of all, I think they should have thought about this before all of the building that went on and the extra light that was put here,” Nolan said. “I feel bad for people that go to James Island in the morning if Maybank and River are backed up for miles.”

Earlier this month, Charleston leaders said they are working on a $30-million project to improve traffic on Johns Island, part of which includes widening Maybank Highway to four lanes from River Road to the Stono River Bridge. But funding for that has yet to be nailed down and those plans are years away.

The construction on Friday is weather-dependent and drivers are asked to use caution while driving through the area.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Officials with the city of Charleston and Charleston County have announced a plan to address traffic concerns on Johns Island.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the plan is the result of collaboration between the city of Charleston and Charleston County and will tackle traffic flow problems at the intersection of Maybank Highway and River Road, portions of Maybank Highway and the northern and southern Pitchforks, Tecklenburg said.

“Traffic congestion has been a huge issue coming and going on Johns Island,” he said. “And it was accentuated when that traffic light got added down the street. And everyone came to the realization that we needed to go back and rethink what got done six or seven years ago, what’s been done since then and what can we do collectively and collaboratively to make it better and make improvements.”

The city and county laid out the main points of the plan:

“Pitchforks” means two new roads that will branch off of Maybank towards River.

“The current cost estimate sits somewhere between $25 and $30 million to do all of this,” Charleston County Councilmember Joe Boykin said.

Tecklenburg said the money will come from future sales tax and Department of Transportation funding and once permitted, will apply for federal funding.

The full construction funding will have to be identified and approved by both city and county councils, according to Tecklenburg.

The first goal for short-term, interim improvements to Maybank Highway are expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2024, Tecklenburg said.

Robby Lingenfelter who works on Johns Island said he’s hopeful about the project but still frustrated.

“They say that the northern pitchfork will be completed by the first quarter of 2024, that’s good,” he said. “Southern pitchfork they said will take years, so we’re still five to ten years from alleviating the issues we have now.”

He said the city and county have been meeting since June to address the traffic issues on Johns Island.

“It’s going to happen. We are committed to making that happen,” Tecklenburg said.

Some locals question the mayor’s timing.

“Hearing this press conference that is happening five days before an election, can’t help but notice that a lot of this was conceptual and funding for a lot of this isn’t even secured,” Logan Mcvey said. “So, this seems like more talk and a lot more traffic just sitting and waiting on stuff to happen.”

Tecklenburg’s response was that they needed enough vetting through engineers and design teams before the plans could be presented.

Charleston County Council member Jenny Huneycutt, Charleston City Council member Karl Brady and the city’s planning and traffic directors also attended the news conference.

WATCH THE CHARLESTON LEADERS ANNOUNCE THE JOHNS ISLAND TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENT PLAN BELOW

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

JOHNS ISLAND — In a CVS parking lot next to what is perhaps the most dreaded intersection on Johns Island, a pickup truck pulled up next to Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, prompting a woman to yell “fix the roads!”

That’s what Tecklenburg and several city and county officials had come to talk about the morning of Nov. 2. Rapid growth and development have created notorious traffic snarls, largely because there are only two ways on and off the island, which is partly in the city limits and otherwise governed by the county.

At Maybank Highway at River Road, Charleston’s mayor and two County Council members said the governments agree on plans for significant traffic relief getting on and off the island. Short-term plans call for realigning that intersection to improve traffic flow.

Much larger plans — the long-discussed “southern pitchfork” and adding a second lane on Maybank Highway between River Road and the Stono River — would need to be designed, permitted and funded. And that would take years.

“We’ll be dead by the time it happens,” said Gary Worth, a local resident who was among a small crowd of onlookers at the press conference. County Council members Joe Boykin and Jenny Honeycutt joined Tecklenburg to announce the road plans.

“Until now there wasn’t a firm commitment by both governments to do this,” said Tecklenburg. “That’s what’s new.”

He said city and county officials have been meeting since June to work on conceptual plans, cooperating “like I’ve never seen before,” he said.

Palmetto Politics

Boykin said one of the largest plans calls for shifting the end of Cane Slash Road a bit closer to Maybank Highway so that it would align with the proposed “southern pitchfork” that would run from River Road to Maybank Highway, near the bridge.

There’s also a northern pitchfork, and that road is nearly complete. It will allow traffic coming onto the island on Maybank Highway, which would have turned right on River Road at the intersection, to instead take the new road from Maybank to River and avoid the intersection. The southern pitchfork would do the same, but on the opposite side of Maybank Highway.

Jimmy Kerr, who owns the large property the southern pitchfork would cut through, agreed to the plan years ago. At the event Nov. 2, he said he’s been talking with the city for years about the plan.

“There’s no question that we are playing catch-up,” said Tecklenburg.

“The city and the county together are committed to four lanes between here and the bridge — four lanes,” he said. “We are committed to the southern pitchfork as well.”

The plan to have two lanes running from River Road down Maybank Highway to the bridge now calls for routing those lanes around some of the grand Live Oak trees that line the road. The much-beloved trees that line many roads on Johns Island have complicated many road plans because residents and officials are loathe to cut them down.

At least one man in the small crowd watching the announcement found the timing, five days before the election, a bit suspect.

“It feels a little like political grandstanding,” said Tommy Moles, who said he moved to Johns Island from the Charleston peninsula two years ago. “We hear about plan after plan, but nothing seems to happen.”

Moles said he isn’t affiliated with any of the mayoral candidates’ campaigns.

Tecklenburg said plans to unveil the road proposals had been in the works since September and had just become finalized.

“This was not a campaign event,” he said.

The realignment of the River Road and Maybank Highway intersection should be complete in the first several months of 2024, officials said. The new lanes and the southern pitchfork are untold years away, but now the city and county agree on those road plans.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCIV) — It started as an island paradise, but residents at a Johns Island apartment complex say their home now resembles the woods.

The residents of Sea Island Apartments, which houses about 48 people off Maybank Highway, are speaking out against what they describe as "deplorable" conditions.

Read more: One80 Place launches eviction prevention line to support Charleston renters

"We have seen grass grow almost knee and chest high," said Farley, a disabled military veteran who has been living in the complex for six years. "You see fallen trees in the area, people not receiving maintenance, and overloaded trash bin."

In addition to the overgrown vegetation, the residents are concerned about random visits from wildlife. They say it seems management has slacked off and there's been little to no communication.

"You're forced to pay rent on time, but still, your issues are going unaddressed," Farley said. "We'll reach out to management and they haven't meet with us. Every time, they change management or owners. Nobody has contact to it."

It started as an island paradise, but residents at a Johns Island apartment complex say their home now resembles the woods. (WCIV)

There is also only one trashcan in the entire community and a small number of parking spaces.

"You have disabled people having to walk all the way down to one trash bin," Farley said. "There are not enough handicap parking spots. (Management) told us we'd have to park on the side of the road if there are no parking spaces."

"It's time we be up to date, as we were before," said Charlotte Turner, who has been living in the complex for 10 years. "Management needs to show a serious concern about resident complaints, at least be willing to meet or communicate."

Read more: Mayor Tecklenburg to host ribbon cutting for six new affordable housing properties in Charleston

A councilman was reached for comment on this area, but he was unable to conduct an interview due to prior commitments. A representative from the Charleston Development Group was also reached for comment.