Use the Cross Island Parkway? Get ready to pay more

Palmetto Pass users on the Cross Island Parkway will pay an additional $1 a month beginning in March to help cover administrative costs, state transportation officials said Thursday.

The fee will be added to customers' monthly statements, said Marge Dorey, who manages toll operations for the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

The new surcharge is on top of an overall rate increase of 25 cents per use, for both regular and Palmetto Pass users, that will go into effect March 31. After that increase, Palmetto Pass

users will pay 75 cents per use, and others will pay $1.25 per use.

But transportation officials say the surcharge is not part of the state's efforts to help pay off the debt on the financially struggling toll road. The $1 will help cover administrative costs related to banking fees the state pays on the Palmetto Pass accounts,

Dorey said.

The fees have existed since the road opened in 1998, but the state has never charged users to cover that cost, she said. One dollar was the lowest amount the state could charge, she said.

"We didn't want to charge anything more than that," she said.

A new contractor, ACS Inc., just took over operations of the toll collections and installed new equipment at the plaza. But the company did not add any new fees onto the toll collections, Dorey said.

The state sent out letters to all Palmetto Pass users letting them know about the new fee, officials said.