Recent travelers along Highway 10 West have probably seen the growing construction crew and equipment near Magnolia Cemetery.

An ongoing project to curtail the regular flooding along the state highway will soon restrict traffic to one lane, according to Greenville Police Department Chief Lonzo Ingram.

“It all has to do with water drainage and flow,” Ingram said.

“South Street often floods from a big downpour of rain, or prolonged rain.  It tends to flood there, which holds up emergency traffic going to the hospital as well as normal traffic traveling down Highway 10 West.

“There’s been a big project in the way to correct that, and there has been some new work done at Magnolia Cemetery with some new drainage pipes laid, and now they’ve got to lay some under the road.”

The project, which will limit traffic to a single lane for the next 30 days, moves into the next phase next week.

“They’ll actually start working on it Monday, but now they’re putting all of the barricades in place to help protect the workers while they work,” Ingram said. “And they’ve got the portable red lights up now, so it’s already just one lane of traffic.”

The important traffic traveling down Highway 10 West isn’t limited to emergency personnel going to and from the hospital.

“In this case, the high school is out that way, and we have a good number of buses that come from the middle schools and elementary schools that travel down Highway 10 West to come to the high school,” Ingram said. “So we’ll have to put an officer out there to try and hold traffic to get the buses through, because it’s important that all of the buses are in line running out to the schools so they can pick those students up and get them home. 

It’s just been a big project, but it’ll be well worth it.