After five long years, residents of this rural part of Charleston County can relax, knowing that the South Carolina Department of Transportation is not going to ruin their country lifestyle.

Beloved by thousands over the decades, Hwy 162 is a two-lane country road that winds under oak canopies, past farm fields and cypress swamps, vividly reminding us of what our coastal areas looked like for hundreds of years before we began to dramatically alter them. Residents of this area are fiercely protective of this now-vanishing rural landscape. 

Five years ago, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) wanted to spend between $60 and $80 million to widen this road to five lanes for six miles of its length, from Hwy 17 South to the Town of Hollywood. At that time, the road did not meet the average vehicle per day standards that were set by the DOT to warrent widening the road. This means it was (and still is) operating far below its carrying capacity.

The DOT proposal would have cut a one-hundred-foot swath of asphalt through existing residences, businesses, historic churches and graveyards, and acres upon acres of wetlands. It would have bisected environmentally sensitive lands such as Dixie Plantation and Dungannon State Heritage Preserve, where wood storks, an endangered species, nest.

Thanks to the close partnership between the Coastal Conservation League and the Concerned Citizens of Highway 162, a local citizens group, in 2003 the DOT abandoned the plan to build a five-lane road, but not before they wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on private consultants and studies.