Columbia Standard

The state Legislature has approved a budget that includes $850,000 for road work for Columbia's Five Points road project, paving the way for the renovation of Harden Street.

Rep. Seth Rose (D-Columbia) requested the money as an earmark and said it’s slated to join roughly $4 million set aside by the state Department of Transportation to improve Harden Street and corresponding intersections. 

Rose had been working to get the final $850,000 to fund the DOT changes and said that the project would help make the area more accessible and friendly for commerce.

“It’s a historic place for all South Carolina, and so, as we change the future of Five Points to make it more business friendly, to have more people want to locate their business here, this is an important project,” Rose told WIS News 10. “I can only imagine what this is going to do for pedestrians who want to walk and buy and can come to Five Points and not be run over. This is going to make our historic village have more of that village feel.”

Rose has called the issue of pedestrian safety in the area a "decades-old problem" that the project will address.

Conceptual documents from the state Department of Transportation show the potential reduction of four lanes on Harden Street to two, along with alterations to the Harden and Devine street intersection, as well as the Harden and Blossom street intersection.

Five Points Association President and owner of Saluda’s, Steven Cook told WIS News 10 he is excited about the project, and any short-term construction will be worth it.

“Look, that will always be a concern, right? I think at the end of the day you have to balance those short-term inconveniences for the long-term health of the neighborhood. We do that every single day, whether it’s a delivery truck delivering something down here. When you’re in a dense urban environment like this, there are always going to be trade-offs,” Cook said.