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Traffic Relief Coming to Downtown Lexington

People coming through the area means good business but sometimes it can be irritating for drivers.

Lexington, SC (WLTX) - The town of Lexington hopes a new project will help relieve traffic in downtown Lexington to benefit drivers and businesses.

Heavy traffic is common around Main Street in Lexington.

"It’s pretty busy, consistent, all-day long. It is a U.S. highway so it's going to be busy," said Bell.

Stephanie Bell is a manager at Bodhi, a Thai restaurant on Main. She says people from all over the state travel to their restaurant to experience their food.

People coming through the area means good business but sometimes it can be irritating for drivers.

"We've had some frustration from patrons. What we try to do is let people know the good times to migrate this way. Obviously avoiding peak times at five o'clock on a Friday is probably the best," explained Bell.

We tested congestion on North Church Street Wednesday evening and it took almost four minutes just to go 500 feet.

The Town of Lexington has a new project that they hope will be the solution to the issue. They have a project called the SC-6 One-Way Pair Project.

Credit: Town of Lexington, Custom

The area it affects is Main Street, North Church Street, and North Lake Drive. According to the town, 33,000 drivers go through the area each day.

The Town of Lexington’s website says they’re converting North Church Street and North Lake Drive into one-way streets.

“The objective of the SC-6 One-Way Pair Project is to make the intersection of Main Street at N, Lake flow more efficiently. By splitting the northbound and southbound movements, the signals at Lake Drive and Church Street can service twice as many vehicles as it does today. This increase in efficiency will allow for more green signal time to be allotted to east and west Main Street at Lake Drive and Church Street.”

The town also says the left-hand turn from North Lake Drive to Main Street will be eliminated because of it becoming a one way. They hope this will increase traffic flow through the area.

Main Street will continue to flow in both directions.

The project costs nearly 2 million dollars and is the first traffic project funded by the 2 percent hospitality tax in the town of Lexington.

Bell says this could help a lot of businesses around the area.

"It's going to make this a more friendlier place for people to drive, park, and walk around. We're just excited about it," said Bell.

The town of Lexington says the project will go live on June 23rd.

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