$2M job will bring ‘significant improvement’ to downtown Port Royal. Here are the details

Streets through Port Royal’s cozy residential neighborhoods are getting repaved. The nearly $2 million project signals the first time the town has tackled multiple paving needs simultaneously. The work will bring new surfaces to virtually every street in the Old Village, the historic center of the town where some roads are named after nation capitals including Paris, London, Madrid and Edinburgh.

The paving work will be an inconvenience for residents, Town Manager Van Willis says, “but we think long-term it’s a significant improvement.”

Work by Charlotte-based Blythe Construction began Monday with resurfacing of Madrid Avenue and will continue for three to four weeks. Blythe is asking residents to have all vehicles removed from the street between 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

“We have piecemealed the resurfacing throughout the years,” Willis said, “but this is the first truly comprehensive resurfacing of town-owned roads.”

“We are repaving basically all of downtown Port Royal, with the exception of Paris Avenue,” Willis added.

In the largest capital project the community has ever undertaken, the town also plans to spend some $16 million in a major overhaul of Paris Avenue — the main street through the Old Village. But the town must still secure funding before beginning that work.

Unlike most municipalities, Willis said, Port Royal owns most of its roads, which only adds significance to the repaving work. The state of South Carolina typically owns most of the roads in communities, he said. But in the 1990s, the town began taking ownership so it had more control over redevelopment designs for the downtown area, Willis said.

Last year, the online review site Cheapism ranked Port Royal among the 50 most-underrated towns in America, citing its leadership in the planning and development approach known as New Urbanism.

The Town Council previously approved $5 million in capital projects for 2023-24, a 900% increase. That work included $3 million in general obligation borrowing. At just under $2 million, the street repaving makes up the bulk of the $3 million worth of borrowing, Willis said.

Here’s when repaving is scheduled to begin:

▪ March 4: Madrid Avenue and Laurel Street.

▪ March 5: 15th and 16th streets, Columbia Avenue

▪ March 7: 11th, 12th and 13th streets.