Charleston’s White Point Garden could get refresh alongside The Battery project

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – As the five-year-long project along the Low Battery Seawall comes to a close, final touches on the project and the surrounding area are in the works.

The goal is for White Point Garden, located right next to South Battery, to also get a much-needed refresh.

“As we get to the end, with White Point right there, it’s gotten a little bit beat up during the course of the project with laydown areas and construction all around it,” Charleston District Eight City Councilman Mike Seekings said.

On Tuesday, city officials are planning to vote to potentially allow the mayor of Charleston to sign a change order that would authorize the same company that’s been working on the multi-year project to refresh the pathways with a new sub-base and layer of fresh loose oyster shell paving.

Some of the areas along the path, once white from bleached oyster shells, have turned to mud. Constant foot traffic and surrounding construction are to blame. A challenge will be the timing. Crews will need to wait for the materials, including oyster shells, to be shipped so they can get to work, hopefully at the same time as they wrap up along the water on the battery.

City of Charleston Section Chief of Facilities and Capital Projects Jason Kronsberg and Seekings agree that freshening up the garden as they round out the final phases of the project just makes sense.

“Having the streets already closed down, we’re not paying for another contractor mobilization, so again it was the best value common sense approach on how to get this work done quickly, efficiently with lower impact to the neighborhood,” Kronsberg said.

“It’s really a natural end to the project, good common sense, good efficient way to close out what has been an incredibly successful project in this part of Charleston,” Seekings said.

Seekings expects both to be complete in the next few months. Kronsberg says once all the paperwork is ironed out, the hope is for the maintenance portion of the park to not last more than 60 days.