Lesslie, Old Pointe, and Sunset Park Elementary School Traffic Patterns To Change This Year!

From Anthony J. Cox, P.E., Associate Superintendent for Administrative Services, Rock Hill Schools

Everyone is excited about the first day of school, and Facilities and Custodial Services Departments have been 'climbing' a mountainous workload over the summer.  Most all of our projects have been completed.  Every effort has been made to accommodate our returning teachers, students and their parents.  There are three schools which have seen a shift in traffic pattern which will be very visible tomorrow (Wednesday) and which I'd like to call to your attention:

 

1. Lesslie Elementary School.  Although as challenging in scale as the Ebinport Elementary School project, and even more technically complex, we were hoping to be completely done with the traffic access portion by today (Tuesday).  Unfortunately, a very intense permitting process  and a near record frequency of daily rainfall have combined to leave us about 6-10 working days short.  We met this morning and have developed a plan for temporary traffic flow through the site.  We will have a Sheriff's Deputy on site tomorrow for traffic control and there will be no paving operations on site for the next few days.  At any rate we expect a much improved flow and traffic management than last year's "before" condition!
2. Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies.  Work on this site is 99% complete and the new traffic pattern will be completely in use.  We have switched the bus loop and car rider loops at the school and constructed a new entrance for car riders off of Barnes St. which wraps around the school, designed to "stack" traffic on our property rather than on Barnes and Friedham Streets. 
3. Old Pointe Elementary School.  A traffic snarl that has occurred for some years at Old Pointe Elementary School Road and Heckle Blvd. was addressed by the local Traffic Commission and SCDOT and we were provided a "solution" by them that splits the traffic flow leaving the site.  This has been fully coordinated with the City, SCDOT and the school administration.  Basically, all car rider traffic will enter the same way as last year, down Old Pointe School Road and up into the front driveway of the school.  At the top of the loop, traffic will split to two lanes.  After dropping off/picking up, the lane closest to the school will be directed out through the connecting road which goes past the Aquatics Center and exits to Rawlinson Road.  This road will be an exit only for car riders.  The other lane will return the way it came in and exit back onto Heckle Blvd from Old Pointe School Road. This should reduce the "snarl" greatly.  City Police will be on hand to direct traffic and help with this transition.

 

Thanks again for your help and support of our schools!

 

Tony Cox