City of Charleston looking to secure funding for Sanders Road sidewalk project

WEST ASHLEY, S.C. (WCBD) – The City of Charleston is looking to secure funding for a sidewalk completion project on Sanders Road in West Ashley.

The sidewalk on Sanders Road ends just past C.E. Williams Middle School and before the residential part of the road where several neighborhoods branch off.

“I do a lot of walking, especially in the neighborhood and it’s really hard if you want to leave the neighborhood or walk, you know, a little further in different directions. There’s really nowhere to walk,” said Chuck Weidner, who lives in a housing development off of Sanders.

Plans to extend the Sanders Road sidewalk are in progress to give residents like Weidner, more mobility options.

“I’ve often thought, you know, they need some sort of sidewalk to get onto Bees Ferry or toward the school just because it’s dangerous if you don’t have a place for pedestrians to walk,” Weidner said.

Officials with the City of Charleston said they applied for a $1 million grant from the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) to put towards the completion of the sidewalk.

According to officials, separate projects on Sanders Road are being conducted by a private developer and Charleston County.

“So, what would happen if the city didn’t step in, is there would be large gaps essentially where there would be no sidewalks. So, it wouldn’t have that full connectivity,” Deja Knight McMillan, the Director of Communications for the City of Charleston, told News 2.

The city alone would cover about 2,000 feet of sidewalk if the funding is awarded, officials said. Once all three parties finish their portion of the sidewalk, pedestrians will have safe access from Bees Ferry Road to Glenn McConnell Parkway.

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