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Roadway Leaders OK Project Plans: Committee Focuses on Boosting Program Funds

Posted on: Saturday, 4 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Janelle Frost, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Feb. 4--Local leaders are asking for more dollars for Grand Strand roadway projects.

On Friday, the Grand Strand Area Transportation Study Policy Committee, comprised of local officials throughout the area, finalized and approved a plan of projects for which money is available to move them forward within the next three years. It includes redoing the back gate intersection and widening Third Avenue South in Myrtle Beach and Eighth Avenue North in North Myrtle Beach.

But the focus was on increasing future road project funds.

Officials with the state Department of Transportation in March may consider revising the funding formula that determines how much money each regional area in the state gets in federal gas tax dollars.

Funding provided to each area is based on permanent population, but Grand Strand officials say that is not a good way to decide how much money a tourism area should get.

The area's transportation staff is asking that DOT consider how many miles each vehicle travels on each road in addition to the population, said Mark Hoeweler, director of planning at Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments in Georgetown.

Hoeweler said this would be a better way of ensuring the Grand Strand gets its fair share of funding for needed roadway improvements.

However, SCDOT 1st District Commissioner Bob Harrell thinks the area should take it even further and have DOT take into consideration the number of vehicles that travel on each lane on an average day.

"It's about the cars, not about the miles," Harrell said.

The policy committee is a 20-member panel of area elected officials and staff members.

The projects come from a 25-year, long-range transportation plan approved last year. More than $20 million has been budgeted through fiscal year 2008 for some of the roadway and enhancement projects, and the area should see construction in the next three years.

As road construction is a drawn-out process, taking years from the time the community identifies problem areas to the time state and federal money is designated for those projects, the policy committee locally is trying to alleviate congestion and redesign dangerous intersections as it identifies key projects.

Those projects include:

Widening Third Avenue South in Myrtle Beach.

Third Avenue South would be widened from two lanes to three lanes. The third lane would be a turning lane.

Widening Eighth Avenue North to Sea Mountain Highway along U.S.17 in North Myrtle Beach.

That road would be widened from four lanes to six lanes, officials said.

Upgrading the intersection at U.S.17 Bypass at S.C.707, or the back gate.

For the interchange, $1.1 million has been budgeted.

Any of the $1.1 million left over will be used for right-of-way purchase for the interchange, Hoeweler said. He said it would currently cost about $25 million to build the actual interchange, which funding is not available for at this time.

Adding Lymo signs and bus shelters

Another $1 million will be used to add signs and new bus shelters throughout the area for Lymo buses, a project Hoeweler said will be "ongoing over the next three fiscal years."

"We will be working with the technical committee on identifying the areas those signs and shelters would go," he said.

Contact JANELLE FROST at 443-2404 or jfrost@thesunnews.com [mailto:jfrost@thesunnews.com].

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

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