COLUMBIA — After several projects in the Lowcountry, tree cutting is moving north on Interstate 26 as crews resurface the road.
Citing reductions in the number of severe car wrecks on South Carolina's interstates, the state Department of Transportation has added tree removal to a number of projects over the past decade.
In addition to improving safety, the department says cutting trees from the median and shoulders clears the way for road expansion as the state's population and traffic counts grow.
Driving on I-26 today motorists will see trees being removed from the median and sides of the road over a 23-mile stretch from Interstate 95 in Dorchester County north to Orangeburg.
While the focus of the project is repaving and drainage improvements, clearing trees within 55 feet of the roadway is included in the work, said DOT spokesman Pete Poore.
The effort is expected to be complete by October 2024.
Early last year, tree removal crews started in Ridgeville and cut north to I-95. The current cuttings mark the latest stretch.
Cuttings along I-26 stem from a legislative push in 2015 to address accidents occurring on the interstate. According to DOT, 57 out of 68 severe-injury or fatal accidents that took place from 2007-11 in the Ridgeville to I-95 portion of I-26 involved hitting trees.
The practice was put to the test earlier in 2009 when DOT added tree removal along 15 miles of Interstate 385 to a larger highway maintenance project. That stretch of road went from an average of 12 motorists crashing into trees each year to three annually.
Serious and fatal crashes involving trees were reduced from about four to one annually.
The results were repeated with projects on 13 miles of Interstate 26, between Summerville and Interstate 95, in 2014 and 2015 and more than 35 miles of I-95 in the Lowcountry in 2012 and 2018.
Before that, trees were a factor in 25 percent of all fatal crashes in South Carolina, according to a study conducted by Clemson University in 2009.
In 2019, that number was 12.5 percent, according to the latest annual SCDOT traffic statistics.
Tree cutting has not always been popular with residents, who said removing the trees took away from area scenery. Following pushback in 2014, the first I-26 clearing project was shrunk from a targeted 30 miles down to 13. At that time, state lawmakers enacted a temporary requirement that the area councils of government had to approve cuttings before they take place.
Current tree clearing projects do not face that requirement.
But DOT officials note that in addition to safety concerns there are also plans to address traffic. Last year the department received approval for preliminary work to widen I-26, which sees an annual average daily traffic count of around 33,000 vehicles.
Trees are typically cut down when an interstate is widened inward, Poore said. This saves the expense of buying right-of-way.
Officials told The Post and Courier the goal is to eventually widen the interstate from Ridgeville to I-95, once funding is secured.
Also last year on Interstate 20 trees were cleared from parts of Kershaw, Richland, Darlington and Florence counties. Guardrails were added in a number of locations.
Some of this tree removal was part of DOT's Rural Road Safety Program, which clears vegetation as funds become available.
