New road would have skirted a new Lake Keowee

In the mind of at least one attendee at this week’s Seneca City Council meeting conjured up an event associated more than 50 years ago when the then Duke Power Company formed Lake Keowee. And that was the possibility that the South Carolina Highway Department considered building a new road that would have skirted the lake near Seneca. There was even a movement to convince the state to build a bridge over the new lake connecting Old Salem Road and rural communities that felt cut off by the lake impoundment. Neither the road, nor the bridge, was ever built. This all came to mind Monday night when some residents of the S. Cove and 188/Keowee School road areas said they thought a new road would help lessen traffic congestion if a 235-unit housing development is built in their vicinity. They suggested the new road could deliver traffic to Seneca, by avoiding two busy intersections–Miracle Circle and the 188-Bountyland Road.