Final asphalt is being laid for the $33 million Boundary Street Project and plans are underway for a celebratory ribbon-cutting June 1 at 10 am to cap the two-year Boundary Street project, which is being completed on schedule and on budget.
Local, state and federal leaders are being invited to the event, to be held at the corner of Boundary Street and Robert Smalls Parkway at Beaufort Plaza. More details will be shared as the date draws closer and the final touches are put on thismassive construction effort.
The Boundary Street Project is a $33 million federal, state, county, and City of Beaufort initiative that is just over one mile long, stretching from Neil Road to Sycamore Street at Beaufort City Hall. A major element of the project was removing overhead power and communications lines into an underground duct bank, reducing urban clutter while creating a safer environment for travel.
About 35 miles of overhead cables were relocated underground, drainage systems were upgraded, sidewalks were installed on both sides of the street, and new streetlights have been installed along with locally-sustainable landscaping. All these improvements have made for a remarkable entrance to the City of Beaufort.
In his weekly newsletter, Mayor Billy Keyserling wrote, “Now . . . when one enters Beaufort one realizes they are entering a very special place where the citizens not only value but highly celebrate and protect our natural and pristine beauty, where traffic, walking and bicycling safely are a priority, where there is incentive for owners of dormant properties to develop them knowing the gateway sets the stage for redevelopment. Three owners are planning new and/or upgraded redevelopments as was anticipated when we launched what was perhaps the city’s most ambitious single undertaking in our 300-plus year history.”
Keyserling thanked everybody involved with the project, with a special thanks to the Boundary Street merchants and the public, saying he was especially grateful for their patience “as we ventured this sometimes rocky and inconvenient path to create a proper gateway that our hometown deserves.”
