BLYTHEWOOD – After receiving several phone calls from residents who waited up to 30 minutes on Monday for the light to change at the intersection of Langford Road and Main Street (Highway 21), Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross contacted the S.C. Department of Transportation (DOT).
Barry Mattox, Assistant District Traffic Engineer for the DOT, told The Voice that a recent malfunction in the light system apparently caused it to occasionally not change properly for Langford Road.
“Something wasn’t working correctly,” Mattox said, “so our Traffic Engineer, Brett McCutchen, spent some time out there on Monday and again Tuesday morning and got it cycling correctly. Clearly something wasn’t right, but we have it fixed now, but when school opens, we’re going to have to expect new delays even though the light is working properly, because all that traffic from Rimer Pond Road has to go through town until the road is opened back up. But it certainly shouldn’t be as bad as it was on Monday when the light was stuck.
“We’ll keep an eye on it as school starts and make any necessary field adjustments to help the flow of traffic,” Mattox said. “But motorists are going to have to be patient, because with the detour still in effect and school starting, the traffic is going to be heavy at these intersections in Blythewood.”