Planned I-95 exit to Hardeeville gets funding boost

Hardeeville officials hope $500,000 in federal funds will expedite development of a planned Exit 3 on Interstate 95.

The money is earmarked to extend Bluffton Parkway west to the interstate. It now ends at S.C. 170.

The money will go toward planning the parkway extension and drafting a report justifying the interchange for the exit, interim city manager Ted Felder said.

City officials say the exit would spur economic development in a poor corner of the state and speed hurricane evacuation.

"This money will help us complete the initial steps in the process and speed up the time before this new exit is a reality," Hardeeville Mayor Bronco Bostick said in a statement.

The exit would be the first for northbound travelers entering South Carolina. It also would improve access to undeveloped land near the Savannah port and a planned Jasper County port, Felder said.

The exit is expected to cost $30 million to $40 million to build.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson and Sen. Lindsey Graham helped secure the recent earmark in the 2010 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. Getting the money should make it easier to get more funds for the exit in the future, said Pepper Pennington, a spokeswoman for Wilson.

"Typically, when the federal government makes an initial investment of funding, future funding is easier to come by," Pennington said. "We're going to continue to fight for it."

Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, sent a written statement that praised the local project.

"The local community made a compelling case why these funds were needed," the statement said.

Earlier this year, Hardeeville hired a lobbyist for a year and a half at a cost of $54,000 to help it secure state and federal funds.

Felder said the lobbyist pushed for the city's earmark, but Pennington said it succeeded primarily on its own merit.

"I think the project speaks for itself," Pennington said.