By admin 
When South Carolina’s newest state park was announced on Lake Murray’s Pine Island, neighbors were worried. With only a two-lane River Road running between Interstate 26 and the narrow causeway onto the island, residents worried that traffic during peak summer visiting times would trap them in their homes.
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But with the first Fourth of July of the park’s first year now in the past, both state park officials and nearby homeowners say the area has avoided too much disruption so far.
Since Pine Island opened its summer hours in April, the island has seen 3,711 vehicles cross over the causeway, an increase of more than a third of what the park had seen since its soft opening last October.
“These numbers reflect growing public interest in Pine Island State Park and underscore the value visitors place on experiencing South Carolina’s natural resources and outdoor recreation opportunities,” Duane Parrish, director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said in a statement.
But so far, operations at the park have been smooth. Park Manager Tim Ritter said parking on the island has reached capacity only once so far this summer, and even then Pine Island was able to admit more visitors within less than an hour.
“It’s definitely come close to filling up on a lot of Saturdays,” Ritter said.
Pine Island was once maintained as a getaway spot for employees of South Carolina Electric & Gas, which owned the lake and its hydropower dam. It was closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the struggling utility — which was absorbed by Dominion Energy in 2019 — offered the island to the state as a potential future park to meet its tax liabilities after the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project.
The possibility of the 27-acre island being open to the public sparked traffic fears in the island’s neighbors. Before the park opened, the S.C. Legislature included a proviso in the 2025-26 budget that would have required park visitors reserve a parking spot in advance before arriving at the park, similar to the rules adopted last year for Dominion’s Lake Murray Park. But Gov. Henry McMaster vetoed the parking requirement, saying it was premature before the park had even opened.
Rick Levitan, who lives on the last cul-de-sac before the turn onto Pine Island, thinks the park’s limited hours and its relatively recent opening mean many visitors still haven’t made their way out to the island. That could change as the state park becomes better known.
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“I drove by the [Dominion] park on the Lexington side of the dam over the Fourth of July, and even with a reservation system, it still had cars lined up on Lake Murray Boulevard,” Levitan said. “So there’s still time. You have to remember Pine Island was closed for four years, so it’s only a matter of time.”
If the park does fill up, officials have an electronic sign board on River Road warning drivers to turn around before they reach the island, Ritter said.
People have come to the park to enjoy a summer swimming area on the lake, take their kids to the newly installed playground or picnic in one of the old lakeside shelters. The park has also closed a third of a mile of roadway on one side of the island as a walking trail.
“I’ve seen quite a few people come and walk their dogs there or use strollers,” Ritter said. “We’ve had quite a few folks in wheelchairs on there because it’s a closed, level road.”
The park can regulate parking for some special events. It recently hosted an after-hours, reservation-only event on the Fourth of July for viewing the fireworks over Lake Murray, Ritter said, calling it the “biggest test” for the island’s traffic management system so far.
Pine Island has issued 451 “park passports” to regular visitors, the parks department said, including neighborhood residents who walk or bike over to the park.
Pine Island is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Admission is $6 for adults, $3.75 for seniors, $3.50 for children aged 6 to 15, and free for children 5 and under.
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