With council vote looming, Hilton Head shows plans for U.S. 278 bridges. Take a look
Consultants publicly presented their recommendation for the William Hilton Parkway Gateway corridor June 17, allowing the public to see new visualizations and surrounding data for the first time days before the town council was expected to decide whether the massive project could move forward.
Surrounded by timeline concerns, the town removed the decision from a June 20 agenda, giving council members and the community more time to respond to the recommendation.
There were about two days between when the information was publicly uploaded and when the town council was set to decide, raising concern from council members that they’d be rushing a decision. The decision will dictate the island’s character for decades to come and especially impact the surrounding community, much of which is the Big Stoney Historic Gullah Neighborhood.
“I’m glad that we’re pushing it back and having a chance to have the conversation,” Town Council Member Alex Brown said of the vote.
The proposed recommendation would replace the existing four-lane bridges with six-lane bridges and make on-island intersection changes to accommodate traffic. The bridge would be 41 feet wider, expanding from 80 feet to 121 feet with 14 feet for bike lanes, according to the presentation. The presentation also said that Island Psychic and Willie Young’s Upholstery & Fabrics would have to be relocated.
For the South Carolina Department of Transportation and Beaufort County to move forward with the U.S. 278 corridor project, they need permission from the Town of Hilton Head, called municipal consent, for the section of work within the town’s limits. If the town gives the state and county municipal consent, it will do so in a memorandum of understanding outlining the conditions under which the project could move forward. This memorandum of understanding wasn’t presented at the meeting, but it was uploaded to the town website June 18.
The vote on whether to finalize the memorandum of understanding and to give the South Carolina Department of Transportation the ability to move forward was originally slated for a town council meeting June 18. That section of the agenda was split out to a separate meeting June 20. On June 18, the vote was deleted from the June 20 agenda.
“It’s impossible,” Town Council Member Tamara Becker said of the previously scheduled June 20 vote. “That timeline does not work.”
The next town council meeting after June 20 is July 23, which doesn’t have a published meeting agenda.
This story was originally published June 18, 2024 at 2:21 PM.
