Mauldin residents will have to wait another year before road improvement begins on Butler Road. During his report to Mauldin City Council on Sept. 21, City Administrator Seth Duncan said the South Carolina Department of Transportation has delayed the city’s Building a Better Butler project.
Following a request for proposals, SCDOT received two bids, and both came in over budget. The agency will revise the project’s plans and send out another RFP in 2027, said Duncan.
Building a Better Butler began with a public information meeting in November 2021. The project will work on 1.7 miles of Butler Road from the Mauldin Senior Center entrance to North Main Street.
The proposed improvements include:
- Building a curb and gutter, a sidewalk on one side and a multi-use path on the other side of the roadway to tie into the existing facilities
- Adding medians throughout the corridor for access control
- Widening Butler Road at the North Main Street intersection to extend the length of the existing westbound turn lanes to accommodate more vehicles in the turn lanes
- Improving the Hyde Circle and Bon Air Street intersections to accommodate the turning movements of large wheel-base trucks to meet SCDOT design criteria and for left-turn lanes to accommodate the traffic signal conditions
- Adding turn lanes on Murray Drive and potentially realigning and/or modifying access for Fairfield Drive to improve both intersection and corridor operation
- Realigning and separating the Old Mill Road and Bethel Drive intersections
- Modifying Brookbend Road to have one intersection for entering and exiting the neighborhood
- Replacing existing culverts with two bridges on East Butler Road over Gilder Creek
For more information, visit buildingabetterbutler.com.
Budget surplus
Council unanimously approved plans to use a $2.9 million fiscal year 2026 budget surplus by transferring:
- $1.5 million to the Capital Projects Fund, which may be used to support capital leases, planned equipment/projects and potential co-funding for a replacement fire truck alongside insurance and lease proceeds
- $1 million to the Capital Projects Transportation Fund, which may be used to support streetscape, sidewalk, trail and network improvements
- $400,000 to a performance-based merit pool for staff
