City making progress on seawall replacement; final phase could start this year

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Charleston is in the midst of replacing a mile’s worth of seawall along the peninsula, and they are making progress on the longest section to date.

Stormwater Management Director Matthew Fountain said crews are on pace to finish Phase 3 of the Low Battery Seawall project this fall. He said they have most of the wall replaced from King Street over to Limehouse Street, which is about a third of a mile, before they finish the utility work and repave the road.

The city said the third phase of replacing the entire Low Battery Seawall costs about $20 million and has remained on budget.

Fountain said crews have been dealing with soil loss and deteriorating concrete, similar to what they found in the first two phases over by the U.S. Coast Guard station.

With construction nearing completion, the city is starting to look toward getting the final phase ready. That project will run from King Street to the historic High Battery, which will remain untouched, but they will be redoing the walkway, adding elevated crosswalks while creating a linear park.

However, Fountain said there could be some changes to White Point Garden once they finish that final piece.

“We’ll probably be reducing some of the parking in order to expand how much greenspace there is and park accessibility in that area,” Fountain said, “so there will still be parking, but we’re focusing on this almost extension of White Point Garden to blend it more into that linear wall corridor to kind of turn this into one large park system.”

The final phase of the project could start construction either later this year or early next year.

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