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JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Those who live on or travel through Johns Island say they have mixed feelings about a new road designed to connect Maybank Highway to two other roadways.

Work is continuing on what is called the Northern Pitchfork, which will connect Maybank Highway to Fenwick Hall Allee and River Road. That work will require lane closures from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday on Maybank Highway at River Road.

Some residents are hopeful it can be part of a solution for what they say is horrendous traffic but others say it’s just a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

There is also frustration surrounding the daytime lane closures for Friday, as residents believe it will be a nightmare, and the work should be done overnight instead.

Charleston County Construction Project Manager Sheila Parker said this has to get done in a specific window of time and they don’t want project delays. The new road is something the city and county have been working on bringing to life for years, with the goal of alleviating congestion and moving traffic along on the island.

“People coming off of James Island onto Johns Island using the Maybank Highway corridor will be able to take the Northern Pitchfork road and kind of bypass the Maybank Highway and River Road traffic light,” Parker explained

Byhira Thorn, who frequents the island often, said she thinks the new road will cause confusion for drivers, and it’s not addressing the root issue.

“I think another lane in general needs to be added,” Thorn said. “I mean, they did it with the bridge which was awesome, but they need to do it with the island. The island itself all around, roads need to be doubled for sure.”

Johns Island resident Kristin Nolan said she hopes this will help, but wishes it was done sooner.

“First of all, I think they should have thought about this before all of the building that went on and the extra light that was put here,” Nolan said. “I feel bad for people that go to James Island in the morning if Maybank and River are backed up for miles.”

Earlier this month, Charleston leaders said they are working on a $30-million project to improve traffic on Johns Island, part of which includes widening Maybank Highway to four lanes from River Road to the Stono River Bridge. But funding for that has yet to be nailed down and those plans are years away.

The construction on Friday is weather-dependent and drivers are asked to use caution while driving through the area.

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For years, we have urged local and state transportation planners to become more aggressive in pursuing smaller-scale traffic solutions for Johns Island, where congestion, particularly during regular commuting hours, has become the island’s No. 1 challenge.

So it was encouraging last week when Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and Charleston County Council members Joe Boykin and Jenny Honeycutt met with the media to discuss their plans for advancing these solutions, which include adding lanes to Maybank Highway between the Stono River and River Road, reviving plans for a southern pitchfork that would create a new road off Maybank between the Stono River bridge and River Road and realigning Cane Slash Road to meet up better with that new southern pitchfork. “Until now there wasn’t a firm commitment by both governments to do this,” Mr. Tecklenburg said. “That’s what’s new.”

All those projects hold the promise of easing congestion significantly on that part of the island. Now that local support for them seems stronger than ever, the challenge is to expedite them and find the money needed to build them. We have an idea there.

Instead of County Council committing $75 million of its 2016 transportation sales tax referendum proceeds to further planning work for extending Interstate 526 across Johns and James islands, it should divert at least half of that toward funding these smaller, less costly and far less controversial projects, which can be built far more quickly and provide relief much sooner.

Diverting that money should not harm I-526, which remains in limbo until County Council comes up with a financing plan to cover most of its $2.2 billion cost (the state has capped its contribution at $425 million). While there’s talk of asking voters to approve yet another half-cent sales tax to raise that money in November 2024, we’re skeptical that it will pan out.

While the State Infrastructure Bank has agreed to match the county’s $75 million for 526 by releasing $75 million more of its $425 million commitment, we urge the state’s Joint Bond Review Committee to reject that contribution at least until the county has a firm plan to finish the project, not simply a notion to hold another referendum.

Johns Island has seen worsening congestion not only because of its growth but also because the specter of 526′s extension has seemed to slow any meaningful progress on the smaller but still significant improvements that would ease congestion.

We’re not referring only to the projects officials discussed last week. The planned flyover at Main Road and U.S. Highway 17 is an equally critical and popular project to improve traffic flow at the other end of the island. We’re dismayed construction work on it hasn’t begun yet, even though that was one of the projects promised in the 2016 sales tax referendum.

And that’s too bad, because those projects are very much worth completing even if I-526 ultimately gets extended. If that project ultimately dies, as we hope it does, the need for these smaller improvements will be even greater.

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JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – Trident Medical Center is looking to build a new hospital on Johns Island.

A certificate of need was submitted by Trident Medical to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) in a step toward constructing a 50-bed acute care facility between Maybank Highway and Cane Slash Road.

It would be directly across from the Live Oak Square development.

“We are excited to continue making medical care more accessible to residents in our historically underserved communities,” said Trident Health President and CEO Christina Oh. “Currently on Johns Island and neighboring communities, it can take residents 30 to 45 minutes to drive to their nearest hospital, and often longer in heavy traffic and inclement weather. Our goal is to increase access to timely, high quality, and affordable health care services.”

Trident leaders estimate the cost of building the new hospital at about $277 million. They said that in the first three years, the Johns Island Hospital would create nearly 300 jobs, contribute to $10 million in non-income taxes to support the community and pay $70 million in salaries, wages, and benefits.

“Johns Island Hospital will mean many residents in the area won’t have to leave the island for work. This will be a great benefit to them and their families,” said Oh regarding job creation.

In addition, the new Johns Island Hospital would be located seven miles from James Island Emergency, which is Trident’s new freestanding ER on Folly Road, which is slated to open in the next few weeks.

The hospital would include 50 beds with space to expand to 150 beds. It would have 40 medical/surgical/stepdown beds, 10 ICU beds, 20 ER rooms, four operating rooms, two endoscopy rooms, and other resources.

Leaders say the third floor will also be designed for future expansion to include a labor and delivery unit and nursery.

“From our first discussions about building a hospital on Johns Island, we have been committed to creating a thoughtful plan that preserves the natural beauty of Johns Island. We will honor the strong Gullah Geechee cultures of the community; we will partner with the areas’ community and businesses; and will promote the important and unique contributions of Johns Island’s agricultural community,” said Oh.

Trident Health operates hospitals in North Charleston, Summerville, and Moncks Corner with three area freestanding emergency departments, and Live Oak Mental Health and Wellness. Its fourth freestanding emergency department is forthcoming.

Johns Island conjures up visions of shady grand oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, offering a peek into a more rural side of Charleston. Several dining options have long existed for the residents of the island, but as its population grows, so grows the burgeoning food and beverage scene.

Since 2005, Hege’s Restaurant in Freshfields Village has served French cuisine in a bistro setting with classics like French onion soup, crab cakes and steak frites. Down on Maybank Highway, local favorite Wild Olive has led the way in sustainability and locally sourced items, boasting housemade pasta and a stunning Italian wine list.

But these popular staples are not the only game in town.

“We knew that Johns Island was growing faster than other parts of the area and also that we wouldn’t have to deal with some of the same logistic problems,” said John Williams, co-owner of Johns Island eatery The Royal Tern, echoing the sentiments of others who brought their businesses to the island for the community and space.

Bottom line: Johns Island’s developing food and beverage community is now a force to be reckoned with.

U.S. Navy veteran Jordan Hooker opened one of the island’s new additions in June, Somm Wine Bar, and he hopes it becomes a vital name on the island.

“Somm is a neighborhood-focused wine bar specializing in wine flights with special attention to detail, to incredible meat and cheese offerings,” Hooker said. “It’s kind of a Cheers bar, where everybody knows your name.”

Somm’s wine flights come with informational cards about each selection, which help guests discover something new.

“I like when people come in and are open to trying new things because the amount of flights that I have that turn into glass pours are astonishing,” Hooker said.

He said he likes to keep the menu fluid because there’s such a wide variety of wine and charcuterie available across the world. Somm’s charcuterie and cheeses are all vegetarian-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free. And since Somm strictly serves wine, beer and charcuterie, it’s currently the only true wine bar on the island, a fact Hooker is proud of.

“We’re the only ones here on Johns,” he said, adding he is happy about the island’s reception of the shop and the weekly regulars that Somm has already gained.

Another newcomer Periwinkle Kitchen aims to fill a gap on the island, offering healthy chef-made to-go options.

Periwinkle, which opened mid-June on Betsy Kerrison Parkway, has a diverse menu that changes weekly, with fun staples like the BLT tortellini pasta salad and three chicken salad options. Recently, it offered a beef stroganoff that captured flavors of home.

“I was missing my parents, so I wanted to make things that remind me of my mother,” said chef Haley Gunter of the beef stroganoff. For Gunter, Periwinkle Kitchen is a space that allows her ideas to flow. “I finally got to a spot that I was able to help create,” she said.

Periwinkle’s owner Kim Hayes wants to do more than just serve delicious food.

“[Our staff] wants to build their careers, and we want to help them build them,” Hayes said. For her, Periwinkle Kitchen is an opportunity to give back on a personal level.

“I blew my back out in active duty [in the Army] and had a massive spine injury,” she said. “I didn’t know if I would ever stand or walk again, and now that I can, it’s a big thing to come in and see people smiling when they come into the cafe.”

Periwinkle Kitchen values the community and is proud to give back to it. A portion of the proceeds from its Heartfelt Cinnamon Rolls goes to the GreenHeart Charity.

“When you think of us, I hope what people always think of is a company that gives back to the community,” Hayes said. “It starts in your own backyard.”

Periwinkle also has Johns Island’s only juice bar where cold-pressed juices are served. It soon may turn into a smoothie bar, too.

For Johns Island locals, this next one is no secret, but for everyone else, it might be. Seanachai Whiskey & Cocktail Bar opened in 2011 and recently turned over ownership in 2019 to chef and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jason Myers and his wife, former figure skater Marissa Myers.

“The pub has been around since 2011, and it’s just become a landmark and staple of Johns Island,” Jason Myers said. “We’ve been running it more or less the same as the founder intended.”

But, that’s not to say the establishment hasn’t grown.

“We just offer a really strong food program. Nothing crazy inventive, but super, super solid,” Myers said. “We’re a bar with a kitchen, not a restaurant.”

With the island’s increasing growth and the bar’s popularity, Seanachai will soon open for lunch and on Sunday evening’s after brunch.

“[Brunch] has easily become our second-busiest day of the week,” Myers said, highlighting brunch cocktails, like the Irish coffee cocktail, which he said is “second to none.”

He has also grown the whiskey list from about 100 to 350 whiskeys, adding that several times a year, he hosts a whiskey dinner.

“I typically try to do four to six of them a year, and they’re private, ticketed events. The whole pub closes down, the vibe changes to lowlight, candles and jazz, and I do a five- or six-course tasting menu with whiskey and cocktails.”

Myers and his wife also opened Flyin’ High Frozen Yogurt next door, offering frozen yogurt, coffee, pastries, CBD, Delta-8 and Delta-9 products.

Mexican eatery Minero shuttered its doors downtown in 2020 after six years on East Bay Street, but in June 2022, it found a new home on Johns Island — with much more space.

“The downtown location and kitchen were very small. We didn’t have room to have an expansive menu,” said Kenny Lyons, vice president of operations at the Neighborhood Dining Group.

In the new space, Minero added a back deck with games, as well as a live-fire charcoal grill used to make fajitas and items featuring charcoal-grilled chicken, like chimichangas and enchiladas, paired with housemade tortillas.

Lyons said the Johns Island community has welcomed the move with overwhelming support.

Brothers John and Ben Williams fulfilled their dream of opening a restaurant in 2019 when they moved to the Lowcountry and started The Royal Tern.

“The ability to design a space and building based on the way we wanted it as well as the ability to provide parking for patrons and employees was a huge deciding factor,” John Williams said.“Our initial goal was to offer the local Johns Island community a new restaurant where they could feel at home. With their loyalty and praise, we have been able to continue to grow as word gets out to people in the surrounding areas of Charleston.”

The Royal Tern offers globally inspired preparations of seafood and beef created by chef Kyle Kryske. Fan favorites include blackened swordfish, whole grilled fish and grilled shrimp, with gluten-free crème brÛleé and carrot cake as desserts.

Williams added that The Royal Tern’s manager and resident sommelier, Garth Herr, is always looking for wines to complement the menu. It also offers a phenomenal bar and cocktail program led by Jimmy Shea, making The Royal Tern a well-rounded place for a night out.

With so many possibilities, new and old, it’s pretty clear that no matter what you’re in the mood for, the Johns Island restaurant community has a fix for it, and they are excited to see you when you arrive.

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JOHNS ISLAND — In a CVS parking lot next to what is perhaps the most dreaded intersection on Johns Island, a pickup truck pulled up next to Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, prompting a woman to yell “fix the roads!”

That’s what Tecklenburg and several city and county officials had come to talk about the morning of Nov. 2. Rapid growth and development have created notorious traffic snarls, largely because there are only two ways on and off the island, which is partly in the city limits and otherwise governed by the county.

At Maybank Highway at River Road, Charleston’s mayor and two County Council members said the governments agree on plans for significant traffic relief getting on and off the island. Short-term plans call for realigning that intersection to improve traffic flow.

Much larger plans — the long-discussed “southern pitchfork” and adding a second lane on Maybank Highway between River Road and the Stono River — would need to be designed, permitted and funded. And that would take years.

“We’ll be dead by the time it happens,” said Gary Worth, a local resident who was among a small crowd of onlookers at the press conference. County Council members Joe Boykin and Jenny Honeycutt joined Tecklenburg to announce the road plans.

“Until now there wasn’t a firm commitment by both governments to do this,” said Tecklenburg. “That’s what’s new.”

He said city and county officials have been meeting since June to work on conceptual plans, cooperating “like I’ve never seen before,” he said.

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Boykin said one of the largest plans calls for shifting the end of Cane Slash Road a bit closer to Maybank Highway so that it would align with the proposed “southern pitchfork” that would run from River Road to Maybank Highway, near the bridge.

There’s also a northern pitchfork, and that road is nearly complete. It will allow traffic coming onto the island on Maybank Highway, which would have turned right on River Road at the intersection, to instead take the new road from Maybank to River and avoid the intersection. The southern pitchfork would do the same, but on the opposite side of Maybank Highway.

Jimmy Kerr, who owns the large property the southern pitchfork would cut through, agreed to the plan years ago. At the event Nov. 2, he said he’s been talking with the city for years about the plan.

“There’s no question that we are playing catch-up,” said Tecklenburg.

“The city and the county together are committed to four lanes between here and the bridge — four lanes,” he said. “We are committed to the southern pitchfork as well.”

The plan to have two lanes running from River Road down Maybank Highway to the bridge now calls for routing those lanes around some of the grand Live Oak trees that line the road. The much-beloved trees that line many roads on Johns Island have complicated many road plans because residents and officials are loathe to cut them down.

At least one man in the small crowd watching the announcement found the timing, five days before the election, a bit suspect.

“It feels a little like political grandstanding,” said Tommy Moles, who said he moved to Johns Island from the Charleston peninsula two years ago. “We hear about plan after plan, but nothing seems to happen.”

Moles said he isn’t affiliated with any of the mayoral candidates’ campaigns.

Tecklenburg said plans to unveil the road proposals had been in the works since September and had just become finalized.

“This was not a campaign event,” he said.

The realignment of the River Road and Maybank Highway intersection should be complete in the first several months of 2024, officials said. The new lanes and the southern pitchfork are untold years away, but now the city and county agree on those road plans.