A temporary traffic signal has been controlling the bridge on Deer Island Road since mid-September. Late that month, crews warned drivers to expect delays of 15 to 20 minutes while they drove sheet piling. A mile or so away, a crane set a barge in the Beach Lagoon so crews could take down a timber footbridge. On Mizzenmast Lane, excavators are lifting concrete stormwater pipe out of the roadbed a short walk from the Harbour Town Links clubhouse.
All three are the latest stretch of a program Sea Pines Community Services Associates sized as a decade of work in 2020. The assessment that pays for it was written so it would not expire on its own. Fall work zones are becoming a regular part of the Sea Pines year.
What's closed this fall, as of the October 8 updates
CSA posts weekly updates on each project page. This table reflects the most recent ones, dated October 8, 2026.
| Project | Where | Status as of Oct. 8, 2026 | Expected through | What it changes day to day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deer Island Bridge | Bridge linking Deer Island Road to Lighthouse Road | Under construction since the week of Sept. 14 | December 2026 | Temporary signal, flagging, possible lane closures; cyclists dismount in work zones |
| Lighthouse Lane Phase 4 | Lighthouse Lane, Mizzenmast Lane, Mizzenmast Court, Windjammer Court, Genoa Court | Drainage work on Mizzenmast Lane underway | Early spring 2027 | Daily single-lane closures; temporary daytime parking for mapped properties through the end of 2026 |
| Beach Lagoon Pedestrian Timber Bridge #31 | Between West Beach Lagoon Road and South Beach Lagoon Road | Work underway since the week of Sept. 14 | Estimated 4 to 8 weeks from start | Footbridge closed to pedestrians; no effect on car traffic |
| Beachwalk #47 | Beach access path | Start postponed, new date not yet announced | Listed as fall 2026 to early spring 2027 | When it closes, Beachwalk #46 is the designated alternate |
On all three active projects, crews work Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and skip major holidays. Any weekend or overnight work is announced ahead of time. Lighthouse Lane is the exception at night, because dewatering pumps run overnight to keep groundwater down so the trenches stay stable.
Lighthouse Lane will be the longest of the four, and its footprint is close to Harbour Town. A planned water outage on Tuesday, October 13, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. covers Genoa Court, Harbour Town Club Villas, Mizzenmast Court, Mizzenmast Lane, Spinnaker Court and Windjammer Court, according to the South Island Public Service District. The same streets lost water for the same five hours on September 22. Outages like these are planned into a job like this one.
Why these streets and not others
The order of the work follows the condition of what sits under the pavement. CSA says the drainage structures under Lighthouse Lane went in during the mid-1950s. Their corrugated metal pipes have deteriorated, and the original system was not built to current engineering standards. During Phase 3, CSA staff told the Island Packet that many pipe sections they pulled out had no top, no bottom, or were missing altogether. At Otter Road, staff described pipes installed in the late 1970s or early 1980s as extremely deteriorated, and nearly a mile of pipe there has been removed and replaced.
That explains why Lighthouse Lane is on its fourth phase. Phase 2 covered the stretch along the 18th fairway of Harbour Town Golf Links. Phase 3 ran from fall 2025 into early spring 2026 on Lighthouse Lane, Mizzenmast Lane and Spinnaker Court. Phase 4 now picks up Windjammer, Mizzenmast Court and Genoa Court. CSA's project page says more phases "will be announced as repairs progress."
The timber footbridges are aging out on their own schedule. CSA says Bridge #31 over the Beach Lagoon has "exceeded its useful life." There is a lot left to work through. CSA's 2024 annual report lists 67 miles of paved roads, 17 miles of paved leisure trails, 32 beach access paths and boardwalks, about 3,000 catch basins and 36 miles of stormwater pipe that the association maintains.
How a decade of work got sized and funded
The current program started with a 2020 review. CSA looked at its 2016 Hydrology Study and an outside Capital Reserve Study and concluded that after years of deferred maintenance and thin capital funding, the infrastructure urgently needed repair and replacement. Those studies, plus recent reconstruction costs, put the critical work at more than $50 million over ten years. Existing resources were expected to cover roughly $16 million, which left a gap of about $35 million.
Owners voted on a referendum to close that gap. It created a dedicated Infrastructure Improvement Fund that can only be spent on roads, bridges, bulkheads, leisure trails, stormwater facilities and drainage. The assessment started at $600 a year for an improved residential lot and $360 for an unimproved lot, with annual adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index. Collection was delayed while the referendum was in litigation. CSA's referendum page reports that on August 12, 2025, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the ruling that ratified the referendum and the assessment.
Here is how that looks on the 2026 bill:
- Improved lot: $2,065 total assessment, with $708 of it for critical infrastructure
- Unimproved lot: $1,233 total assessment, with $424 of it for critical infrastructure
That makes critical infrastructure roughly a third of the annual assessment on an improved lot, and the CPI adjustments have moved it from $600 to $708.
The money goes out about as fast as it comes in. CSA's 2024 financial statements show the Infrastructure Improvements fund ending that year at $743,000, down from $2.4 million at the end of 2023. At the November 18, 2025 board meeting, the forecast through 2028 showed $30,415,541 in critical infrastructure revenue plus $13,153,152 allocated from operating revenue, for a total of $43,568,693. Those figures are projections, not audited results. Even so, they describe a pipeline funded for several more years.
Why the work zones aren't going away
The referendum material spells out the reason. The 2020 plan framed the need as ten years of work, but CSA said the assessment would not sunset automatically because its studies found needs beyond that ten-year window. A future board could lower it if fund balances and remaining needs justified a cut.
So the pattern of the last two years is likely to repeat: a phase starts in fall, runs through winter and wraps up in early spring or spring. Phase 3 ran from fall 2025 to early spring 2026, and Phase 4 runs from fall 2026 to spring 2027. CSA says the 2024 work has already cut down on flooding and maintenance calls.
Planning around this fall's zones
- Allow extra time on Deer Island Road through December. The signal is staying, and CSA keeps advising drivers to expect delays. If you live on Deer Island and have a moving truck, tractor-trailer or big furniture delivery coming, call Sea Pines Security at 843.671.7170 first for approval and traffic coordination.
- If you host guests or renters near Mizzenmast, pass along the parking rule. On the properties marked on CSA's Phase 4 map, owners, guests, renters and service providers all use the temporary parking area during daytime work hours through the end of 2026, and cars left in driveways overnight must be moved by 7 a.m.
- Walk the bike through the cones. Cyclists have to dismount and walk around active work zones on both the Deer Island and Lighthouse Lane projects.
- Plan a different route across the Beach Lagoon for now. Bridge #31 is closed to pedestrians until the work is done, and CSA hasn't posted a designated detour.
- Check the Beachwalk #47 page before you head to the beach. No start date has been set. Once it closes, use Beachwalk #46.
The holiday season is coming up near the Lighthouse Lane work. The resort's Harbour Town Lights page puts the tree lighting before the 7:30 p.m. Gregg Russell concert on Friday, November 27, and asks guests to bring canned food or new, unwrapped toys for Deep Well. That page dates to 2023, so check the Sea Pines Resort event page for this year's schedule. None of the CSA project updates say the event is affected. For live status on any project, the CSA capital projects page links to each project's weekly updates.
The assessment figures in this post describe how CSA has set up its fee. They are general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, so confirm how they apply to your property with CSA or the right professional.
If you're weighing a home in Sea Pines and want to know whether a street has already been rebuilt or is still waiting its turn, Go Gated Realty can go through the CSA project history with you street by street. Request a free buyer consultation.
