John F. Limehouse Memorial Bridge

The John F. Limehouse Memorial Bridge, located about 15 miles west of downtown Charleston, South Carolina, was completed in 2003. It replaced an obsolete low-level swing bridge over the Stono River. The new bridge, which crosses a channel between Johns Island and St. Andrews Parish, an area generally called West Ashley, was completed under a partnership between the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and the United States Coast Guard.PurposeThe Stono River is a critical part of the 3,000 miles of Intracoastal Waterway used by barges, fishing boats, and recreational mariners. The former swing bridge, built in 1958, was an obstruction to vessel traffic, thus removal was mandated by the Coast Guard in an Order to Alter issued in 1994, leaving only a few swing bridges in the Coast Guard’s Seventh District, from Key West, Florida to the northernmost areas of South CarolinaThe new, 2,800-foot concrete structure is a high-level, fixed span. The new bridge has a horizontal clearance for vessels of 215 feet compared with the former clearance of 93-feet and a vertical clearance of 65-feet above the high-water mark, compared to a previous clearance of only 13-feet (closed). The new structure accommodates four lanes of traffic and provides access to Johns, Kiawah, Seabrook and Wadmalaw Islands.