Thoroughly review cuts, delays on road projects

A lot of thought and expensive studies went into developing the road projects list that Beaufort County voters approved in a 2006 sales tax referendum.

The same care should go into revising that list of projects because money to build them isn't coming in as expected.

Those who immediately suggest dropping or delaying big-ticket items on the list take the easy way out in the hard decisions that must be made. They also could damage the credibility of public officials who told us how important these projects were when they needed our votes.

The county planned to spend about $316 million on road improvements, with $152 million coming from the 1 percent sales tax and about $54 million from impact fees charged to developers on new homes, chief financial officer David Starkey told the Beaufort Transportation Advisory Group on Monday. The rest would come from state and federal funding.

But now the cost estimates add up to $356 million. The good news is that the sales tax, despite the recession, should meet its revenue target by the time it expires in 2012. But the recession has hit the construction industry hard, and impact fee collection has dropped significantly, Starkey says. The expected shortfall totals about $85 million.

Some of the projects rely on a combination of funding sources. For the project to extend Bluffton Parkway, the county budgeted $60 million in sales tax money and impact fees and has requested State Infrastructure Bank money. The cost estimate for that project has jumped from $60 million to more than $96 million.

Widening U.S. 278 from Simmonsville Road to S.C. 170 calls for $17.6 million in sales tax money, $7 million in impact fees and $12.8 million in federal earmark money. The project to widen S.C. 170 from S.C. 46 to Riverbend originally budgeted $6 million in sales tax money, $20 million in impact fees. The project is expected to cost more than $34 million. The county has requested money from the State Infrastructure Bank.

The state requests still are pending.

As local officials figure out what to do, they will need to weigh the money already spent on the projects, and there isn't a project on the list that hasn't seen some spending, according to an October progress report.

Two of the 10 projects have been completed -- realigning the Squire Pope Road intersection on Hilton Head Island and building a road parallel to Boundary Street in Beaufort. Seven of the projects are listed as under construction.

While construction hasn't started on the Bluffton Parkway projects, more than $9.4 million has been spent, according to the October report. Santee Cooper and Palmetto Electric Cooperative have begun relocating transmission lines, and rights-of-way acquisition are almost completed.

The Bluffton Parkway extensions are expected to take as much as 30 percent of the traffic off busy U.S. 278.

All of the projects, even the short secondary roads linking shopping and office centers along U.S. 278, have merit. That's why they were on the referendum list.

A drastic drop in impact fees from new construction means that immediate development pressures on our public services also have dropped. But we shouldn't see that as an excuse to stop projects that studies and common sense tell us will be needed.

Our biggest failing in dealing with growth is that we have been continually behind the curve. Many of these road projects catch us up or get us out ahead on this particular aspect of growth management.

Officials should try not to fall behind again. Careful study, thoughtful decisions are needed to do that.