"The traffic when you're going somewhere, you have to be leaving on time or ahead of time just to get where you're going. I'm really tired of it. It's a lot." That is how longtime Johns Island resident Eleanor Jenkins described her daily drive to Live 5 in late September.
Residents have heard about relief for years, often as one long wait for "the roads." But the island's two exits are on separate schedules, paid for by separate budgets, and at very different stages. The first piece to finish, at the north end of Main Road, is expected by the end of 2026. It also opens the most disruptive stage of Main Road construction. The larger fix for Maybank Highway has no funding yet, and its fate goes to voters on November 3.
Here is how the calendar breaks down as of early October 2026.
| Project | Corridor | Current timing | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main/River/Chisolm roundabout and Ramp 3 to US 17 northbound | Main Road | Q4 2026 | Under construction, on track for year-end |
| Main Road/US 17 flyover and full Segment A | Main Road | Contract completion 9/27/28 | Foundations underway, spur bridge "soon" |
| Second outbound lane at the merge | Maybank Highway near River Road | Start early 2027, finish fall 2027 | In planning, a little over $10 million |
| Southern pitchfork and River Road roundabout | Maybank Highway | Depends on Nov. 3, 2026 vote | Unfunded, $65 million on the referendum list |
| Mark Clark/I-526 extension | Islandwide | None | Terminated May 2025 |
Main Road's north end finishes first, and that is where its detours start
Charleston County's August 2026 newsletter for Main Road Corridor Segment A lists two milestones for the fourth quarter of this year. The roundabout at the Main/River/Chisolm intersection is one. The other is the Ramp 3 connection, which carries Main Road traffic onto US 17 northbound. In September, the Tidelines blog cited the Johns Island Advocate in reporting that the County was still on track to open both by the end of the year. No specific date has been announced.
Neither opening will feel like a finish line for long. According to the same September update, one reason to open Ramp 3 is to make way for construction of the Main Road/US 17 flyover bridge. While the flyover is built, access to Main Road has to be shifted away from the current intersection. Under the preliminary plan, Ramp 3 would temporarily carry two-way traffic between Charleston and Johns Island, which no ramp will do once the project is complete. A temporary road would carry traffic between Hollywood/Ravenel and Johns Island. Many details and SCDOT approvals are still pending, and no date has been set for the rerouting.
The newsletter shows how much work remains. Pile driving for the ramps is about 95% complete, drilled-shaft foundation work is underway, and construction of the US 17 overpass spur bridge on Main Road is expected to "begin soon." Bridge plans for Ramps 1 and 4 are finished. Right-of-way plans for a left-turn lane at Old Pond Road are done, and design has started on a shared-use path for the Limehouse Bridge. The contract is worth $354,312,450, and its anticipated completion date is September 27, 2028.
So when the roundabout opens this winter, Main Road drivers are about two years from the end of the project. The first thing to change is the route itself. A shorter drive comes later.
The Maybank merge gets one more lane, on a 2027 clock
The island's other exit is on a completely separate schedule. City and county officials plan to add a second lane where Maybank Highway narrows to one near the River Road intersection, the spot where outbound traffic backs up. Live 5 reported on September 24 that construction should start early next year and finish in fall 2027.
Charleston Mayor William Cogswell described the limits of the site plainly. "There are wetlands concerns. There are certainly tree concerns. There are wildlife concerns. All of that gives a pretty limited window as to what your options are," he said. Officials are checking the health of trees along the route to see which ones are expected to die in the next few years. Cogswell was direct about the trade-off. "The reality is you're all going to lose a couple," he said.
The project got smaller and cheaper as a result. Cogswell said the single-lane plan now costs significantly less than the original estimate because it removes fewer trees and takes less space, putting it at a little over $10 million. Toby Schroeder, a Johns Island commuter, had modest hopes for it. "There's still going to be some traffic, but it'll be relieved a little bit," he told the station. Fellow resident Whitney Clayton said the trade-off with the trees is worth it.
That $10 million lane fixes a single bottleneck. The larger Maybank project costs more than six times as much.
The bigger Maybank fix is a question on the November 3 ballot
The southern pitchfork has been discussed on Johns Island for a long time. It would add a new road between River Road and the Stono River bridge on Maybank Highway, completing a three-pronged traffic pattern alongside the existing northern connector. A Post and Courier editorial called it a key traffic solution that "remains unfunded."
When the county's proposed transportation sales tax project list was released, the Post and Courier reported $65 million for the southern pitchfork plus a roundabout on Maybank Highway at River Road. Charleston County Council gave final approval to the 2026 Transportation Sales Tax ordinance on July 21, and the referendum is set for November 3, 2026. The County's own release on the ordinance reports program-wide totals rather than project-by-project amounts, so the $65 million figure comes from the newspaper's reporting on the list.
That makes this the only Johns Island road project whose next step depends on residents directly. The Main Road work has a signed contract and a completion date. The Maybank merge lane has a construction window. The southern pitchfork's timeline depends on how the November vote goes.
One project is off every calendar
The Mark Clark/I-526 extension still comes up in conversations about island traffic, but it is no longer an active project. ABC News 4 reported that it was formally ended by a three-party agreement signed May 12, 2025. Any road plan for Johns Island now works through the projects in the table above.
An October and November that stay on the island
Until the roundabout is finished and the ballot measure is decided, a few of the season's best dates don't require crossing either bridge.
Legare Farms, 2620 Hanscombe Point Road. The farm's new Galloween Farm Event: Timber Scares is a haunted forest with five scare zones, running throughout October.
Johns Island County Park, 2662 Mullet Hall Road. The Harvest Festival runs Saturday, November 7, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with live bluegrass, hayrides, pumpkin decorating, children's crafts, food, and a crafters market.
Crowne Commons Way. Locals Sushi & Sports Pub announced plans to open at 1804 Crowne Commons Way, in the space Blu Smoke Pit left this summer. The Post and Courier reported in August that it was targeting a September debut and planned to hold its half-price sushi night on Tuesdays at this location. Operations director Shawn Sherman told the paper, "We've somewhat let our customers help create our concept for us."
The Harvest Festival is four days after the referendum. By then, the island will know whether the southern pitchfork has funding, and the Main Road roundabout will be in its final weeks before the County's year-end target.
The order of these projects matters when you decide to buy or sell on Johns Island, from which road an open house sits on to when a listing goes live. If you're planning a move around the Main Road detours or the 2027 Maybank work, Middleton Rutledge can help you time it. Let's Connect.
