Road improvements around Hilton Head Island bridges could cost $200M; state commits $44M

The state plans to pay $44 million to replace and widen a portion of the Hilton Head Island bridges, as well as foot the bill for an environmental impact study required before the project can start.

While it’s at it, the S.C. Department of Transportation could expand the scope of that study to include an assessment of an additional series of U.S. 278 improvements around the bridges, Beaufort County leaders say.

County and SCDOT officials are discussing “how we can plan the entire corridor so we would be well positioned” to get a running start on improvements to the four-mile corridor between Buckingham Plantation Drive and Squire Pope Road, county engineering director Rob McFee said earlier this week.

Those improvements — which come with a whopping $200 million price tag — would add traffic safety features and widen the road from four lanes to six.

The full environmental study is estimated to cost $3 million.

But, there’s a twist.

The state wants the county “to commit to having a funding source for the entirety of the project — the whole $200 million” —before agreeing to expand the scope of the study beyond the single Mackay Creek bridge span, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber said.

Funding sources for that $200 million have yet to be identified.

Some aspects of the corridor improvement would have been paid for using revenue from a 1 percent sales tax increase shot down by county voters in November.

A planned $51-million bond sale will provide nearly $10 million for road improvements in the Jenkins and Pinckney island areas, which are part of the corridor plan.

But that still leaves the county well shy of $200 million.

If the study were to start within the next few months as planned, that leaves the county with a “tight window” to find those funds, Gruber said.

Local leaders are attempting to convince the state to revise its stance that the county must either find the entire $200 million or pay for the environmental study using local funds.

“If the (county’s proposed U.S. 278 corridor improvement) project doesn’t move forward after the environmental assessments, they would want us to reimburse them for the cost of the study,” Gruber said.

County administration officials have yet to sign an agreement with SCDOT on the scope of the study because “we are trying to work through some provisions that give us concern,” he said.

Regardless of how the study is paid for, county leaders agree that the Hilton Head Island bridges — along with the portions of U.S. 278 immediately east and west of the spans — must be improved to accommodate growth both on the island and in greater Bluffton.

“Anyone who has driven back and forth (across the bridges) will tell you that it is extremely difficult to get on and off the island because of the volume of traffic,” Gruber said.

Beaufort County Councilman Paul Sommerville agreed.

U.S. 278 corridor improvements must “move forward or you might as well shut down Hilton Head,” he said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Road improvements around Hilton Head Island bridges could cost $200M; state commits $44M."