Famous trees unlikely to be cut

AIKEN --- Tree lovers can breathe easy.

• Photos

Jackie Ricciardi/Staff

Edgefield County's "Avenue of a Hundred Trees" is probably safe from a project to widen U.S. Highway 25, transportation officials say.

Edgefield County's pride -- "The Avenue of a Hundred Trees," which has been a fixture in the area for decades -- shouldn't have to be cut down to make room for the widening of U.S. Highway 25.

Instead, the road will likely have to move for the trees.

Residents recently expressed concern about the fate of the pecan trees, which are nearly 100 years old, when state transportation workers kicked up surveying efforts in anticipation of widening a four-mile stretch of the major thoroughfare from South Carolina Highway 19 to an industrial park entrance.

There has been talk for years about widening U.S. 25, said Edgefield County resident and business owner Bettis Rainsford. And the trees would be in the way, he said.

With engineering work seemingly under way, he said, he and others grew concerned about what the state would do about the trees.

"We'd all be deeply disappointed" if workers removed them, Mr. Rainsford said. "Those trees are one of the very important picturesque views of Edgefield County, and particularly by them leading up to the Pine House, which is one of the oldest established sites in Edgefield County, dating all the way back to the 1750s.

"It's very important that they be maintained."

But the state said residents shouldn't worry.

If and when the time comes to widen U.S. 25 in and around the Avenue of a Hundred Trees, workers will likely just go around them.

"We've always recognized that you've got that important corridor," said Tommy Elrod, a project manager for the South Carolina Department of Transportation. "You've got that historic house right there. We've never anticipated doing anything to negatively impact that area, such as cutting trees."

What the state does plan to do is widen U.S. 25 for about four miles, but because it is receiving federal money, Mr. Elrod said, it has to study the environmental impact all the way to Trenton.

And that area includes the trees.

That four-mile section of U.S. 25 won't be widened for at least another two years, he said. The money to acquire right-of-way won't be available until 2010 or 2011. Construction would likely be in 2012.

Mr. Elrod said he thinks the state would likely veer U.S. 25 off to the west of the trees, leaving the two-lane road where it is to tie in with the new road on the other side.

"They're always going to be an important feature," Mr. Elrod said of the trees. "I can't anticipate us proposing anything that would call for us to cut down those trees."

Reach Sandi Martin at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or sandi.martin@augustachronicle.com.