RFATS’ third Catawba River Bridge: fairly low on on list of priorities

The future of a third bridge over the Catawba River spanning Rock Hill and Fort Mill is now even more out of the picture.

Local officials on the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study (RFATS) last week revisited discussions on a long-term plan for a bridge connecting India Hook Road with Sutton Road.

Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols was one of three members of the study representing the at the January 24 meeting. Echols said he was disappointed with the committee’s series of decisions since 2012 that led to the removal of funds for the idea. State, county and municipal leaders had been considering the idea for the last ten years.

“None of what we’re talking about here is inexpensive,” Echols said. “But we do know that if that’s going to be taken off the table — which it has — We just simply can’t allow that bottleneck to continue.”

That bottleneck — Celanese Road at Interstate 77 — is one that transportation leaders and city officials predict will turn into, in Echols’ words, a “Malfunction Junction.”

Echols said while the plan to build the bridge didn’t come cheap — an estimated $70 million, depending on specifics — something must be done to alleviate congestion along Celanese Road.

First indications of the project’s pending doom came in 2012 after the group could not agree on a location for the bridge.

“Members of our state delegation were not interested in the price tag,” Echols said. “I’m interested to see what they might be able to come up with.”

The group’s decision last week may have very well played a role in a decision this week by Rock Hill City Council to deny a request for rezoning 14 acres of land off Celanese Road near Ebinport for a new Walmart.

Monday night, council members were not satisfied with the additional traffic that would come to Celanese after the company refused to budge on insisting on a new traffic signal to allow for easy entry and exit of the proposed shopping center.