I can’t remember the last time I drove on an interstate in South Carolina and didn’t see at least one Ohio license plate. As annoying as that can be, for a state with a thriving tourist industry, this is just as much of a blessing as it is a curse. Myrtle Beach, for example, has gone from a sleepy little resort town just a few decades ago to one of the most popular vacation spots in the country, drawing more than 13 million tourists every year.
And that number is about to get bigger.
The U.S. Department of Transportation gave the go-ahead for South Carolina to build its 30-mile portion of the proposed Interstate 73, which would run from Myrtle Beach to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., at a “Record of Decision signing” Friday. Now all we have to do is come up with a few billion dollars and change.
The Record of Decision means the S.C. DOT can begin buying the 60 pieces of land that are known to be in the path of the road. The agency has about $80 million to buy rights of way.
The agency will also hire consultants to draw the exact path of the road, and can buy the rest of the rights of way when the corridor is known.
“We’re excited to see the Record of Decision signed, signaling the end of the planning process and allowing DOT to begin purchasing right of way, said Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and the National I-73 Corridor Association.
The document signing is a formality, but an important step that will help move the project along, Dean said.
U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, a longtime backer of I-73 who obtained the project’s first federal money, also said the document is a significant milestone.
“I know we keep celebrating these little victories one step at a time,” Brown said. “But we had a line on the map, now we got a line in the sand.”
Brown, R-Hanahan, said funding for the $2 billion section of road in South Carolina is still an unknown, as is its completion through the other five states.
“We’re going to be hard-pressed to find $2 billion to do that,” he said. [ZANE WILSON - Myrtle Beach Sun News]
Hmm, gee, I wonder where we’re going to come up with the money. Even if the tolls pick up half of the tab, that’s still a billion bucks we need to find. Where on earth would we find that kind of funding?
If only there were a group of “officials” who were in charge of allocating other people’s money to fund such developments. If only that group burned through money faster than a roll of toilet paper at Taco Bell. And if only that group lived for photo-ops showing how they played a part in such a project.
Surely there’s such a group in this state. If there were, I’m guessing it wouldn’t take long for them to write another blank check.
Now don’t mistake my sardonic tone for disapproval, because I think this is a worth-while project. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have taken the time to Photoshop that really crude map for the banner image.
I think this is going to bring a lot of money into this state, and I’m always in favor of that. I just can’t help but be mildly cynical about the impending influx of the trash-and-go variety of Northerners — and the very real possibility that the legislature will turn this into one big, inefficient pork project. The more private funding we can secure, the better.
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Around the state, Legislature, U.S. Congress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
