Picture from ABC News 4 Charleston, SC

Gorgeous beaches, a historic downtown, world-class dining, and charming people – nearly everyone who visits Charleston falls in love.  Some were lucky enough to be born here, others came here through military duty or to be near family, and still others relocated to the area for employment opportunities.  Regardless of their reasons, more and more are calling the Charleston area home. Space on the peninsula is limited, and we have reached a point where expansion is happening mainly on our sea islands. New neighborhoods seem to be popping up like weeds on Johns Island, with barely a slow down for the “great recession.” The things that brought folks here are not going anywhere, but unfortunately, neither is the traffic.

Kiawah Island has been planning for its PGA hosting duties for the past two years. Charleston County and the City of Charleston had many meetings and made detailed plans to move our visitors smoothly from downtown and the highways onto Johns Island and Kiawah Island.  Yet, last week we had the opportunity to see how just poor and antiquated our infrastructure is, and just how unprepared we are to host massive events such as the PGA Championship. Even police armed with jumper cables and gas cans, dozens of tow trucks on call, and highway patrolmen directing traffic couldn’t keep the cars moving and folks arriving on time to enjoy their golf experience.

This area has everything necessary to be extremely successful in hosting huge, lucrative events, except the roads to handle the extra traffic. Completing Interstate 526 - that’s right, completing, NOT extending   – through James and Johns Island is the essential next step. It has always been the plan – only recently has a vocal minority of citizens caused the project to slow to a halt.

Was this week a glimpse into our future?  Approximately 10,000 cars were expected to cross our islands each day during PGA week, and obviously, the enormous crunch we felt was temporary. However, with a housing market that shows no sign of slowing and the potential for more major organizations to choose Charleston to host future events, competent infrastructure and the completion of I-526 are paramount to our future economic success and quality of life on the Sea Islands.

Please check out our organization on Facebook and join our efforts to show the South Carolina Department of Transportation that the majority of Charlestonians do want this road to be completed as soon as possible. We are a grassroots effort started by ordinary residents who want our rational voices to be heard above the rants of a vocal minority. Visit www.facebook.com/pages/Charlestonians-FOR-I-526.