The Playground and the Parking Get the Headlines. In Garden City, the Real Project Is Underground.

If you drive Waccamaw Drive in Garden City Beach, you already know something changed on September 8. Cones went up near Cedar Avenue at the Georgetown County line, crews started digging, and the lane you've used for years suddenly has a flagger in it. What you may not know is why the county picked that exact spot to start, why the price tag on this thing is $25 million, or why the ribbon-cutting isn't happening until three weeks after the shovels already hit dirt.

Here's the part that gets buried under the press-release language about sidewalks and a new playground: this project is a flood fix first and a streetscape upgrade second. The lighting, the parking, the food truck pad along Atlantic Avenue, those are the visible payoff. The actual engineering, and the actual money, is going underground, into drainage pipe and utility lines that Garden City has needed for longer than most of its current residents have owned property here.

What Started on September 8, and What It's Not Yet

Phase one of the Garden City Streetscape Project covers Waccamaw Drive from the Georgetown County line, starting near Cedar Avenue, north to Magnolia Avenue. It also covers Atlantic Avenue from Waccamaw Drive out to the marsh. That's the stretch under active construction right now, with lane closures in place as crews handle underground utility and drainage work, according to Horry County's own project update.

The county's ceremonial groundbreaking, where officials will actually gather in Garden City Beach to mark the project publicly, isn't until September 29. That's three weeks after real work began. If you've been wondering whether the county is moving slow on this after years of delay, the opposite is true here: they got equipment in the ground before they got a photo op scheduled.

The Flooding Problem This Is Actually Solving

Ask anyone who spends real time on this corridor what the issue is, and you'll get the same answer. Jeffrey Wackowski, a Horry County resident who told a local news crew he's in Garden City at least five days a week, put it plainly when asked about the need for the work: "Definitely they need drainage improvements 100%," he said, adding that the area floods every year, as WBTW reported when construction began.

That's the piece that explains everything else about this project. Moving overhead utility lines underground isn't a cosmetic choice, it's what lets crews rebuild the drainage system beneath the road without poles and wires in the way. Improving water quality and reducing the impact of high tides isn't a bullet point, it's the reason the county is spending eight figures on a road that's less than two miles long in its first phase alone. The sidewalks and crosswalks get built on top of that work. They're not the point of it.

The Phase Map, and Why the Order Matters

Here's how the five phases lay out, based on Horry County's published timeline:

If your property sits south of Magnolia Avenue, you're in the first wave, which means you'll deal with the disruption now and get the drainage relief soonest. If you're north of that line, you're watching someone else's construction zone for a while.

That said, the prep work for later phases is already reaching further north than you'd expect. Horry County's consultants working with Santee Cooper have been contacting property owners about easements not just along the Phase 1 corridor, but also along South Dogwood Drive between Magnolia Avenue and Azalea Avenue, according to the county's permitting update. If you own property on that stretch and you've gotten mail or a phone call about an easement, that's not a mistake. That's Phase 2 groundwork happening quietly while Phase 1 gets the attention.

What You Actually Get When the Cones Come Down

Once a given stretch is finished, the county says residents will see brighter street lighting, additional paved parking, new pedestrian crosswalks at every major intersection, and fresh asphalt along Waccamaw Drive. Atlantic Avenue gets a playground. There's also a dedicated food truck staging area built into the plan, which tells you the county is thinking about this corridor as a place people gather, not just a road people drive through to get to the pier.

None of that happens until the pipe and the utility work underneath it is done. That's the trade every resident on this stretch is currently living through: weeks or months of detours and lane shifts now, in exchange for a road that doesn't flood the way it has and amenities that didn't exist before.

What Changes for You This Fall

The project is funded through hospitality fees and the county's Ride4 transportation program, which means it's not showing up as a new line item on anyone's property tax bill. That's worth knowing if you've seen the $25 million figure and wondered who's footing it.

Practically, if you live on or near this corridor, plan for detour signage and reduced lanes on Waccamaw Drive and Atlantic Avenue through the fall, with the same likely for South Dogwood Drive as Phase 2 prep continues. Local business owners are already navigating it. One owner along the corridor, identified only as Aaron in local coverage, has spoken about how exposed the area has been to flooding in past storms, which is the same underlying issue the whole project is meant to fix.

If you're headed to the Pier at Garden City this fall, or if you've been following the saga of the pier's ownership, know that the road getting you there is mid-transformation too, just a slower and less headline-grabbing one.

The version of Garden City Beach that exists in 2029, with underground utilities, a rebuilt drainage system, and a road that doesn't turn into a canal every time a king tide rolls through, is going to look and function differently than the one residents have lived with for years. The sidewalks and the playground are the reward. The reason the county is spending $25 million and five years on this is what's happening underneath them.

If you're curious about how this kind of infrastructure work tends to affect property values and day-to-day life in specific pockets of Garden City Beach, that's exactly the kind of hyperlocal read Coastal Beach Homes tracks for buyers, sellers, and neighbors alike. You can browse more on the Garden City Beach neighborhood page, or reach out to Jan and Dan directly if you want a straight answer about what's changing on your specific block.