Improvements to Hwy 160 in Fort Mill target Baxter Village, Kingsley

FORT MILL, S.C. — You may have noticed some changes on Highway 160 in Fort Mill near I-77. York County is spending just under half a million dollars to try and make driving there a bit less frustrating.

The Baxter and Kingsley areas are swamped with traffic, even outside of rush hour. As of June, cars won't be able to turn left coming out of Baxter Village or Kingsley. Two new raised concrete medians are being put in place, designed to keep traffic from backing up.

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Roland and Judy Proulx live in Tega Cay, and fight the traffic on 160 every day. They like the changes so far.

"Absolutely positive. Wonderful, can’t wait. They need to control the traffic," they said. "This is brutal. 160 as it is, is brutal."

There is no immediate plan to add lanes to 160, so limiting backups from side roads is the best short-term option, DOT said. State engineers said the "right in/right out" se up will allow traffic to flow more smoothly.

The project also includes adding 200-feet raised medians past Pleasant Road. That's aimed at stopping drivers who use the center lane as a travel lane, trying to avoid the bumper-to-bumper traffic.

A check of daily traffic counts at 160 and I-77 shows just how serious the traffic situation has become. As of last year, the area saw 29,200 vehicles a day. That's higher than any other road in the county, except for I-77.

"It's just a nightmare," Brandon Colberg, who works in Baxter Village said. He's watched the addition of the medians, but thinks they could make things worse.

"It's overkill. Traffic right there is so jammed up already, and now they've essentially just reduced a turn lane by putting the median there," Colberg said.

The current project will take until September. Then state and local leaders are looking at phase two. That's completely revamping the interchange at 160 and I-77. It's still on the drawing board for now.

>>>Check out the video above for more on the traffic changes.<<<

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