At six on a weekday morning, the lights are on at 608A Long Point Road. A few doors down, a toy store that used to fill one storefront now takes up close to two. At the corner of Belle Point Drive, a signal and pedestrian upgrade that was listed as under construction this spring is now finished. Out on I-526, nothing has changed yet, even though the state signed a contract worth about $227 million in August to rebuild the interchange.
That's Long Point Road in the fall of 2026. Every change a Belle Hall resident can use today is small and finished. The one big change has a design team and a builder, but no shovels in the ground. The project's published schedule puts construction in 2027, and its design is built around one goal: getting port trucks off the road the neighborhood drives every day.
The finished part fits in one shopping center
Most of what's new is in Belle Hall Shopping Center, and nearly all of it opened between late summer and this month.
| Business | Where | What changed | Status as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eggs Up Grill | 608A Long Point Road | New breakfast and lunch spot, open daily 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Opened in late August; Chamber ribbon-cutting September 29 |
| Decks & Docks | 644 Long Point Road, Suite F | Supplier of decking, marine-construction and outdoor-building products | Open; opening announced September 29 |
| Wonder Works | Belle Hall Shopping Center | Toy store expanded into a space the center says is nearly twice the size, with more hands-on play | Grand opening held in early October |
| Fly Dance Fitness | Between Gown Boutique and Soulshine Aesthetics | Nightclub-style dance workouts | Listed as "Coming Soon"; fall opening planned |
The Post and Courier reported Eggs Up Grill's August 26 opening date. The center lists its hours as 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Count on 2 covered the Chamber ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, September 29. The Moultrie News, writing in the Post and Courier, reported Decks & Docks opening in Suite F. The center's own feed announced the bigger Wonder Works with a morning of live toy demonstrations, giveaways and a NeeDoh raffle.
Fly Dance Fitness is the one still on the way. A June report from WhatNow Charleston said the studio was in permitting and aiming for a fall opening. The center directory still lists it as coming soon, in the space between Gown Boutique and Soulshine Aesthetics.
These openings have a few things in common. Each one is a single tenant moving into an existing storefront, so the work happens inside the walls and nobody has to close a lane. That's how a breakfast restaurant can go from announcement to ribbon-cutting in a few weeks.
The road work that finished was the smallest piece
On the road itself, the one project that has actually finished is also the most modest. The Town of Mount Pleasant has been upgrading the signal and pedestrian setup at Long Point Road and Belle Point Drive. The Town's June 2026 Transportation Committee presentation still listed that upgrade as underway or awarded for construction. By the July 6 presentation, it had moved to "Recently Completed."
The Town has a bigger plan for this stretch, and it's still in design. Its April 2026 presentation describes a $2.1 million Long Point Road corridor project from Belle Point Drive to Whipple Road, with design expected to take 24 months, plus separate design and construction of slip lanes on Long Point Road. In the same document, the Long Point Trail from I-526 to Whipple Road still carries a design start of January 2025, with no construction status. One intersection upgrade is done, and the corridor and trail projects are still on paper.
The interchange is signed, but construction doesn't start until 2027
The I-526 interchange at Long Point Road is a different scale of project, and so far its progress has been in procurement paperwork. Here's the record on the SCDOT project page and in related announcements:
- May 18 to 22, 2026. SCDOT's project page lists a technical-proposal evaluation meeting, part of choosing the design-build team.
- June 22, 2026. SCDOT's notification of award named Ames Construction and asked the company to set up a preconstruction conference.
- August 3, 2026. Parsons announced it will lead design on the Ames team for a design-build project of about $227 million.
- August 7, 2026. SCDOT posted the executed agreement.
- 2027. The project FAQ gives this as the expected construction start and says the work will take about three and a half years.
Those last two numbers need some care. The FAQ still says the project is being prepared to begin the design-build process, which the August contract has already moved past. So 2027 is best read as the published expectation, not a confirmed start date. If construction does start in 2027 and runs three and a half years, the earliest finish is mid-2030. The research also turned up no current or upcoming lane closures or traffic shifts on Long Point Road tied to this project.
What the design does for Belle Hall
The approved concept is mostly about trucks. The project FAQ says new ramps will give trucks going to and from the Wando Welch Terminal a more direct link to I-526, so they can skip local traffic on Long Point Road. SCDOT estimates that trucks' share of Long Point Road traffic will drop from 70% to 15%, and that the new ramps will carry traffic that's about 90% trucks. Those numbers are projections from the planning work, not measurements. The project is designed to separate port traffic from the neighborhood's traffic.
Belle Hall's own turn stays the same. The FAQ says the selected design keeps the current setup at Long Point Road and Belle Hall Parkway. SCDOT changed its original plans for that intersection after local feedback and more engineering review. The left turn into the neighborhood stays where it is.
The preliminary plans also add room for people on foot and on bikes. They include a multi-use path along the east side of Long Point Road and new sidewalk where the old sidewalk falls inside the project limits. A multi-use path will also replace the sidewalk on the south side of Wando Park Boulevard. All of this comes from preliminary plans. The contractor's final design could still adjust the details.
So this fall's weekends happen on today's road
None of that rebuilding touches the next few weeks. The fall calendar around Belle Hall runs on the road as it is now, and two dates are worth putting on the calendar.
- Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch, 30th season. It's open Friday through Sunday from September 25 to November 1, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and admission is $15 for ages 3 and up. Counting from today, three weekends are left: October 16 to 18, October 23 to 25, and October 30 to November 1. The entrance is at 2434 N. Hwy. 17, not Boone Hall Plantation's main gate on Long Point Road, so expect a different route than you'd take for the plantation itself. Live 5 News reported that this year adds a nine-hole LED mini-golf course and an extra mile on the family-friendly Halloween tractor tour, alongside the returning corn maze, Circus Incredible and petting zoo.
- Palmetto Islands County Park playground. Charleston County Parks will close the playground structure for ages 5 to 12 from October 26 to 30 for resurfacing. The park's other play areas will stay open. Those dates run Monday through Friday. The closure starts the day after the October 23 to 25 Pumpkin Patch weekend and ends on Friday, October 30, the first day of the final one.
The work that reaches residents now is short and scheduled down to the day, whether it's one week of playground resurfacing or one season of weekend hours. The interchange runs on a much longer clock, and its next visible step is the 2027 construction start in the published schedule.
If the interchange timeline is part of your thinking about a home in or near Belle Hall, Katherine Cox and our team follow these Long Point Road projects closely and are glad to walk you through what's been finalized and what's still preliminary. Book an Appointment and we'll go through it with you.
