CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- Huger Street in downtown Charleston is slated to be the center of two projects to help with flooding issues and to help bicyclists around downtown.

The drainage improvement project at the intersection of Huger Street and King Street is ongoing. Pipes are being upsized to allow storm water to be taken away from the intersection and into a large pond that will be built.

“A pump station will pick up that water from the pond and basically push it through buried pipes back under the interstate and into the headwaters of the creek back there,” said Matt Fountain, the Director of Storm Water for the City of Charleston.

Phase one of the project will be completed by the end of 2021. Phase two will be finished in a couple more years.

“Residents who have been living in the area for a long time, they’ve been dealing with it pretty much as long as those communities have been there. So there’s a big impact on many of those homeowners and property residents as well,” said Fountain.

Going east down Huger Street, the stretch from Meeting Street to Morrison Drive is about to get a facelift.

Drainage improvements are a part of the Huger Street Streetscape Project, but there is more to the plan.

“We’ll be installing street lights and we’ll be installing new sidewalks, bikes lanes and vehicular lanes. It’s going to be a public benefit,” said Jason Kronsberg, Director of Parks for the City of Charleston. “Huger Street in itself will become a major transportation corridor for bicyclists and pedestrians.”

Kronsberg says that the street trees will also help with drainage.

“Street trees do a number of things. They create shade and they soak up storm water,” said Kronsberg.

A meeting about the Streetscape project, which is scheduled to start in 2022, will be held on Thursday September 30 at 6 p.m.

The meeting can be attended in person at 1 Cooper Street or on Zoom at www.designdivision.org/huger-street-meeting.