The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge turns one-year-old today, and like any emerging toddler, it has been doted on, endlessly photographed and generally fussed over.

It has redefined the Lowcountry's skyline, opened new economic doors and become a favorite new recreation space.

Not bad for a bunch of concrete and steel.

Oh, and the bridge also has excelled in its main job: Helping almost 80,000 motorists a day shuttle between Charleston and Mount Pleasant.

Robert Clark, the S.C. Department of Transportation's district administrative engineer, said of the bridge: 'It has been everything we hoped for, plus more. From a traffic standpoint, it really has opened up that river crossing.'

Almost 15 percent more people made the crossing last month than traveled the old, rusting bridges in June 2004, according to DOT statistics.

The DOT meticulously notes how many motorists cross the bridge (it even recorded how many passed in the northbound and southbound lanes between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on July 10 -738 and 731, respectively), but it doesn't track

how many use the 12-foot-wide pedestrian and bike lane.

Still, officials said whatever the number, it's surprisingly high.

Charles Dwyer, a project manager with DOT, makes an informal tally of bikers and joggers most every time he drives across. 'One time I counted as many as 250 people on there,' he said. 'That was on a nice spring day, on a Saturday.'

The popularity of walking and biking the bridge also has caused more people to notice how much litter flies out of cars and the back of pickup trucks.

'It's like all our bridges. There's been a tremendous amount of debris and trash coming off vehicles,' Clark said. 'It's a challenge to keep it clean like people expect it to be. We're up there several times a week.'

But the bridge wasn't built solely for cars, trucks, bikers and hikers.

The new bridge and the demolition of the old bridges has opened up the Wando terminal to larger container ships. None has passed under the Ravenel so far, but State Ports Authority spokesman Byron Miller said, 'We fully expect it. It's just a matter of when.'

For the shipping industry, the bigger deal is that large ships no longer have to wait for the right tide to ensure they clear the Cooper River bridge. 'We're essentially open 24/7 now,' Miller said.

The new bridge has not faced its first test from a hurricane or earthquake, both of which it's supposed to weather OK. It did survive a direct lightning strike to a tower earlier this month without a hitch.

While the bridge's birthday is today - July 16 was the first day it opened to auto traffic - it actually isn't complete yet.

Palmetto Bridge Contractors is finishing up a few items, mostly paperwork. The group also is making some repairs under warranty, such as replacing the large neoprene bearings where the girders attach to the towers. It also had to fix an elevator.

'One got stuck for a little while' with a passenger inside, Dwyer said. 'It took us a couple of hours before we diagnosed what the problem was and got him down.'

The bridge's other bumps in the road include 35 accidents, though none of them involved fatalities.

Charleston and Mount Pleasant police have written 858 traffic tickets, including one in which a Mount Pleasant cop cited a motorist for going 105 mph.

The bridge's design was a tense, extended tango between those who wanted to make sure its style and appearance befitted its prominent place and those who wanted to make sure the $632 million project didn't break the infrastructure bank.

The project stayed on time and on budget. Architects and others who were involved in the design have regrets about some details - such as the concrete barriers used in the main span - but also are happy for the changes they made.

Eddie Bello, Charleston's urban design and preservation architect, said he is pleased with the indentions, or reveals, in the main towers, the pedestrian railing that enhances the view of the harbor and the lighting scheme, particularly the scuttling of a plan to install big blue lights on top of the towers.

The decision to sandblast the concrete on the towers also has worked out well.

'One of the things I do like about the bridge is that it does tend to change throughout the day,' Bello said. 'You can see it from everywhere in our area. I catch myself saying, ‘Oh wow, look at it now.' '

The bridge's lighting plan also has been well received. The towers are lit from sundown to 10 p.m. from May to October so as not to disturb sea turtle nesting. They shut off at midnight the rest of the year, partly to save money and partly not to disturb migrating birds, Dwyer said.

'I figure anybody out there after midnight doesn't need to be seeing the lights on the bridge, they need to be keeping their eyes on the road,' he said.

There was a time when a computer shut off one tower's light early. Someone complained and the problem was fixed.

One of the new bridge's biggest legacies still has not emerged in full. Only when Charleston's East Side neighborhood is reknit and Mount Pleasant's waterfront park is done - both taking advantage of land in the path of the old bridges - can we understand how the new bridge will remake the area.

Bello remembers vividly his first drive downtown after the approaches to the old bridges were gone. 'The biggest thing for me, having lived here forever, was driving down Meeting Street after the overpasses had been removed and seeing the steeples again,' he said.

'That was really incredible.'

 

Cooper River traffic

Year .............. Average daily traffic count
 2004* .......................................... 66,000
 2005** ........................................ 69,200
 2006*** ...................................... 78,700

* Traffic on the old bridges.
** Traffic on the old bridges and new bridge (which opened to traffic in July).
*** Traffic figures through June.

SOURCE: S.C. DOT

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.

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