Fixing a traffic pain point: US 278 and SC 170 interchange getting overdue attention

Vehicle collisions with the related injuries and fatalities are a constant worry for motorists throughout Beaufort County and one of the pain points is the heavily traveled merger of two highways located near the border of Bluffton and Okatie.

Something is now being done to make the intersection safer and that involves heavy deployment of orange traffic cones by day and bulldozers and paving equipment by night.

The construction project at the junction of U.S. 278 and S.C. 170 is part of a larger project that reaches to Argent Road and Oldfield Way. Work began on the $6.7 million initiative in April and should be completed in October . The goal is to “implement access management strategies to improve overall safety and traffic flow,” said Bryan Bauer, the interim director of engineering in Beaufort County.

Simply, lights, lanes, medians and other features will be added to make navigating the area safer and saner.

Improvements to the intersection are only part of the overall S.C. 170 Near Term Improvements Project , a joint venture between Beaufort County, the South Carolina Department of Transportation, Jasper County and the City of Hardeeville.

Other improvements in the project include:

• modernizing traffic signals at the intersection of Argent Road and 170 and at the intersection of S.C. 462 and 170.
• a new signal was also placed at the intersection of Oldfield Way and 170. There was no previous signal at that intersection.

The project was temporarily paused thanks to Tropical Storm Debby , but paving should begin again later this week and will continue through the end of September, he said. The storm did not wash away any of the work that has already been done, but the schedule was delayed because of the storm. Commuters should continue to expect some lane closures during nighttime paving, Bauer said.

What should motorists expect?

Drivers can expect a number of road improvements from North Okatie Center Blvd. all the way to South Okatie Center Blvd., Bauer said, including:

• Medians will be installed at the intersection of North Okatie Center Blvd. and 170, across from Barrel Landing Rd., to make it a right-in, right-out configuration.
• Left turn lanes will be added at the intersection of 278 and 170 coming off of 278. They will also update the current signal at that intersection.
• The ramp from 170 to 278 will be widened and the lane will extend further than it currently does. Low-profile medians will separate the ramp lane from the rest of traffic, essentially making it a free flow lane. This will help traffic continue flowing onto the ramp, even if drivers are backed up at the left turn off of 278.
• A left-turn “bulb out”, which would allow drivers to make a U-turn, will be added on South Okatie Center Blvd.

Where does this intersection rank among the county’s most dangerous?

The merger between 170 and 278 is ranked sixth for total number of traffic collisions in Beaufort county when compared to other top 10 dangerous county intersections from January 2020 to July 22 . according to the analysis done from South Carolina’s Department of Public Safety. From August 2021 to mid-July 2024, there have been a total of 79 collisions. One person has been seriously injured in an accident at this intersection within the same time frame.

“There’s some congestion issues there with the intersection and the ramps going to 278. It backs up, especially in the rush hours, so hopefully this will alleviate some of that and give better traffic flow through that intersection,” Bauer said.