As a licensed engineer in South Carolina, here is my assessment of Beaufort County Councilman Stu Rodman's plan to discard the original flyover plan to connect Bluffton Parkway to U.S. 278.

The original plan was designed to safely carry traffic to and from Hilton Head Island and the mainland. To install a traffic-light controlled intersection, as proposed by Rodman, would be a major traffic bottleneck. Traffic would be backed up traveling westbound from Hilton Head Island and would defeat one of the primary purposes in building Bluffton Parkway, which was to relieve westbound traffic while exiting Hilton Head during an emergency evacuation.

If the main objection to the flyover is its aesthetic appearance as a gateway to Hilton Head, then an underground traffic tunnel should be designed from Hilton Head to the mainland as an alternative escape route during emergency evacuation. The Rodman plan could never accommodate the emergency massive traffic flow from the island.

Philip Zarny

Sun City Hilton Head