Long-Awaited Sidewalk Project Near Williams-Brice Stadium Pushed to 2027
For seven Saturdays each fall, Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia becomes the heartbeat of South Carolina football. Nearly 80,000 fans flood the area, bringing unmatched energy — but also raising serious safety concerns. For years, many of those Gamecock faithful have had no choice but to navigate their way to the stadium by walking along busy four- to six-lane roads, where little or nothing separates them from oncoming traffic.
The lack of sidewalks on stretches of Rosewood Drive and George Rogers Boulevard, two of the busiest arteries near the stadium, has been a long-standing problem. Fans, lawmakers, and community leaders alike have worried about the risks it poses on game days.
“I’m always appalled when I’m leaving a game and see pedestrians having no sidewalk to walk on,” said State Rep. Seth Rose, D-Richland. “It’s a basic safety issue, and it’s something that should’ve been addressed long ago.”
A Delayed Start to Long-Awaited Fixes
The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) confirmed last year that a sidewalk project was in the works following reports by The State. At the time, the project was projected for completion by the end of 2026.
However, fans will have to wait even longer. According to an SCDOT spokesperson, construction is now scheduled to begin in early 2027, with completion expected before the fall 2027 football season.
The price tag is steep: $5.35 million, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The FHWA is contributing roughly $4.8 million toward the project, though where the remaining funds will come from has not been fully clarified.
What the Project Includes
SCDOT spokesperson Hannah Robinson said the plan centers on building a ten-foot-wide sidewalk on one side of Rosewood Drive, adjacent to the state fairgrounds. This will extend from the Assembly Street intersection all the way to Bluff Road, ensuring for the first time that pedestrians have a continuous, protected path along the heavily traveled stretch.
Currently, only half of that corridor has any sidewalk at all, leaving fans to walk dangerously close to traffic lanes when traveling to and from Williams-Brice Stadium.
Early proposals had also called for sidewalks along George Rogers Boulevard, which wraps around the opposite side of the fairgrounds and leads directly to the stadium’s entrance. However, limited funding forced officials to scale back, and the project will focus solely on Rosewood Drive for now.
A Piece of a Bigger Vision
This sidewalk initiative is part of a broader movement to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety along Columbia’s Assembly Street corridor, one of the city’s busiest and most congested areas.
“Making Columbia more walkable and bikeable is a passion of mine, and we’ve had huge success with other projects,” Rose said. “This is another important step in making sure our infrastructure matches the needs of the people who use it.”
For now, Gamecock fans will continue navigating the game-day gauntlet on foot without the benefit of proper sidewalks. But by 2027, the experience of walking to Williams-Brice could finally become safer — and much more fan-friendly.
