North Augusta Allocates $37M From Sales Tax for Georgia Avenue Work and Greeneway Trail Extension

North Augusta will receive roughly $37 million from Aiken County's one-cent sales tax. That's about $6.3 million more than the original 2018 ballot estimate of $30.7 million. City Council met Feb. 26 in Greenwood to decide how to spend the remaining $12.9 million on what leaders call the "Big Four" projects and eight smaller items.

Work on Georgia Avenue will kick off in September and finish by Jan. 1, 2028. The project covers the section from the 13th Street bridge up to Jackson, pegged at $2.34 million, with funding that can handle up to $3 million. Plans include center medians and high-visibility crossings throughout. Some intersections will get pedestrian-operated signal crossings.

The city will submit to the South Carolina Department of Transportation for permitting in mid-March. The council is expected to award the construction contract in July.

A Greeneway connector extension from Bluff Avenue to the edge of Wade Hampton Park will cost three-quarters of a million dollars. The Bluff Avenue connector opened in June 2024 and has driven new development at the entrance to downtown.

The Big Four make up $4.75 million worth of work. A culvert repair under Cypress Drive will cost the city just $320,000 to $500,000, thanks to $1.28 million in federal funding secured Feb. 3. A paved ditch between Fairway and Alta Vista rounds out the Big Four with $500,000 assigned to it.

The interior concrete wall of the stormwater pipe under Cypress Drive has started caving in. Back in 2014, the city experienced a culvert failure that cost about $1 million in unexpected repairs.

The current sales tax collections end this spring. A new cycle begins May 1, 2027, and will bring in around $48 million for the municipality.