While it will take a little while for the change to hit online mapping services and GPS devices to start sending tourists bound for Hunting Island on the new route (and even longer for habit-laden locals to change) U.S. 21 now officially no longer runs through Beaufort's stretch off Ribaut Road.

Instead the official U.S. 21 route now takes business and through traffic past Parris Island, downtown Port Royal and over the "new bridges" onto Lady's Island.

The change comes as Beaufort continues to try and convert Boundary Street into a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly shopping and dinning district -- something that was not eased in either perception or reality by having the main road designated as a federal highway.