Hanahan celebrates new roadway extension with ‘Meet in the Street’ Block Party

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCBD) – Railroad Avenue now extends across Hanahan, and on Friday, the city celebrated by hosting a “Meet in the Street” Block Party celebration.

The City of Hanahan is paving a new road to unite their community.

“There was a three-decade build up to this thing getting done,” Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb said.

City officials say the one-mile Railroad Avenue Extension was completed primarily for enhanced public safety.

“If you think about school buses needlessly crossing railroad tracks multiple times a day,” Cribb said, “adding minutes to public safety response time.”

Hanahan Mayor Christie Rainwater says the decades-long wait to have this road completed means a lot to Hanahan residents, which is why she found it fitting to celebrate in the middle of it.

“It has been just worked on forever,” Rainwater said, “so we decided to throw a block party. And the truth is we’re connecting two parts of the city together, so we said let’s meet in the middle. Let’s let everyone get together right where it is and have that party.”

Steven Allen, who moved to Hanahan from Atlanta in 2016, brought his family out to enjoy Friday’s block party.

“It’s a great community event,” Allen said. “Celebrating something new. We have been doing a little bit of dancing so that’s been great, and we still have to go and walk the road because we haven’t had a chance to walk it to the other side. So, we’re excited about doing that.”

And not only does this new extension unite the community, it also unites families.

“We always lived in Hanahan Proper behind the high school,” Morgan Donnelly said, “and when I got married, I moved back here to Hanahan. And my sister got married…”

“And we moved into the Eagle’s Landing side,” Layna Pesnell said, “so we are quite literally separated by this road that has now brought us together.”

“This is incredible to be able to bike to each other’s houses now,” Donnelly said, “or run to each other’s houses now, especially the sidewalk, instead of driving onto Rivers Avenue.”

The Railroad Avenue Extension officially opened on Friday at 8:30 p.m.

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Author: Kevon Dupree