Indian Land traffic is getting worse. Lancaster County hopes $40M plan will help
Lancaster County will make a $40 million pitch for help widening U.S. 521 in Indian Land before it’s too late.
The county intends to apply for funds from the South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Bank. That public grant and financing agency assists in many of the state’s largest road construction projects.
But the county has two hard deadlines looming.
Statewide applications for the $250 million of available funding are due June 13. As a rural transportation program, this set of money is only open to communities with 115,000 people or fewer. Lancaster County had 96,000 residents in the 2020 Census and nearly 112,000 people in the most recent census projections from March.
“This could be our last window to apply,” said County Administrator Dennis Marstall.
Traffic and jobs off Charlotte Highway
Lancaster County’s application isn’t finalized but it’ll ask for about $40 million to widen an 3-or 4-mile stretch of U.S. 521, or Charlotte Highway, heading south from the North Carolina line. The infrastructure bank funding picks projects based on traffic congestion and economic development, Marstall said.
The Indian Land project can easily check off both boxes, he said, especially as North Carolina has its own plans and funding to widen U.S. 521, or Johnston Road, on that side of the line.
“We want to prepare ourselves to receive that traffic if they’re going to go forward with that, but also the economic development,” Marstall said. “Clearly the Indian Land panhandle with our corporate parks up there, there will be a good investment to help us continue to feed that economic development.”
Charlotte Highway is the spine of Lancaster County, he said, and forged a path for decades of growth. More is coming. The next three years will bring major residential growth even outside Indian Land, Marstall said, as construction progresses in areas like the 1,800-home Roselyn development.
“We’re going to see some significant population increase,” he said.
There’s also traffic from projects like a new Target set to open this summer in Indian Land, and a Costco aiming to open by the end of the year. Both of those projects, like Roselyn farther south, are right off Charlotte Highway.
All-in road funding approach for Indian Land
The Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study divvies up federal funding for the urbanized areas of York and Lancaster counties. The local group studied Charlotte Highway three years ago and determined it could cost $100 million or more to widen and upgrade intersections along the Indian Land panhandle.
“We’re going to build off of the RFATS study where you widen 521 one lane in each direction, from the state line down to at least (S.C.) 160 or Marvin Road, maybe a little bit farther,” Marstall said.
The county has some revenue from its local capital sales tax, though most of the money from that tax goes toward building county facilities.
Last fall, the county put a new transportation sales tax referendum on the ballot. It would’ve generated more than $400 million for roads in 15 years, according to county projections. Voters narrowly turned it down, with 53% of them voting against it.
County officials have had ongoing discussion in recent months on bringing back a revised transportation tax plan. It could be for a shorter term or for fewer roads. There’s also been a back-and-forth among Lancaster County Council members on whether to put a tax on the ballot this year or wait until next year.
Charlotte Highway is too important a road in Lancaster County to wait, or possibly even to rely on,l any one funding source. So the county will make its case to the infrastructure bank even as work on another transportation tax continues.
“We’re trying to do an all-in approach,” Marstall said.
Just as the proposed transportation sales tax in Lancaster County is similar to Pennies for Progress in York County, the infrastructure bank funding would borrow a page from a neighboring playbook. York County received about $75 million from the infrastructure bank four years ago for interstate improvements, through a cycle meant for larger road jobs. A year later, York County got $64 million more.
Long-range plan for Indian Land highway
David Hooper, administrator for Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study, outlined details Friday on an updated area road plan through 2055. It focuses heavily on areas of Rock Hill and Fort Mill off Interstate 77. Then, there’s U.S. 521 that operates almost like a mini-interstate through Lancaster County.
“That’s one of, if not the most important, corridor off of I-77 within the planning area,” Hooper said.
The policy committee for Hooper’s group, made up of mayors and elected officials from the most populated areas in the Rock Hill region, unanimously approved a letter to the infrastructure bank supporting Lancaster County’s pending application.
U.S. 521 brings traffic from Charlotte and its Ballantyne community, with direct access from an Interstate 485 interchange just 4 miles into North Carolina. There’s also the fast-growing Union County area that feeds into it.
On the South Carolina side, S.C. 160 and Dobys Bridge Road offer two direct routes into Fort Mill from Indian Land. Further south, Charlotte highway is one of the few routes across the Catawba River heading to Rock Hill.
The U.S. 521 corridor will be a key area in funding decisions in coming years, Hooper said. But, his group also has several large interchanges on I-77.
“We now know that it’s not uncommon for us to be asked to put $80- to $100 million at one location,” Hoope said.
U.S. 521 is included in that list of expensive projects. It’s also among the area’s busiest roads. South Carolina Department of Transportation numbers show more than 31,000 vehicle trips per day happen on Charlotte Highway between the state line and Dobys Bridge Road.
For non-interstate roads, that traffic count puts Charlotte Highway tied at No. 125 on the list of busiest traffic counting stations across South Carolina.
Many of the larger counts are multiple spots on the same roads. The 11 non-interstate stations in York County with higher traffic counts than Charlotte Highway are almost entirely connected to the interstate.
The six largest traffic counts in Lancaster County are all spots on Charlotte Highway.
This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Indian Land traffic is getting worse. Lancaster County hopes $40M plan will help."
