Support for US 278 project appears uncertain with Hilton Head council split over direction
The U.S. 278 project to reconfigure the entrance to Hilton Head Island has plunged into uncertain territory.
The island’s Town Council appears to be split, 4-3, over whether to move forward now and negotiate over the $290 million plan for the bridges or demand that state transportation officials revisit key parts of their favored construction proposal.
The fissure was revealed late Monday as representatives discussed a town-hired consultant’s tentative counter to the state’s preferred plan for the Hilton Head bridges.
The council’s disagreements reflect the ongoing debate among residents who are willing to work with the state’s ideas and those who want to go back to the drawing board entirely.
The Monday meeting brings into question: How long will it take the Town Council to solidify its position on the sprawling project? And will it ultimately support the widening of U.S. 278 to six lanes between Bluffton and Hilton Head with a razor-thin, 4-3 vote?
The meeting has essentially raised the prospect of a divided Town Council decision over the direction of the undertaking, which will likely be one of Hilton Head’s most consequential public infrastructure projects ever.
Town can veto, but will it?
Beaufort County will eventually have to obtain a signature of municipal consent from the town before construction can begin on the project, according to the S.C. Department of Transportation and Shawn Colin, senior adviser to Hilton Head’s town manager.
The Town Council, in other words, has the ability to veto SCDOT’s plan, Colin said in July.
Will it choose to do so?
If Monday’s meeting is any indication, the council’s final decision in that matter is still down the road, given that elected officials are already facing a major choice:
Should Hilton Head move forward with the consultant’s current recommendations and seek input from Beaufort County? Or demand that SCDOT officials revisit crucial aspects of the state’s original U.S. 278 analysis now?
MKSK, a Greenville-based land planning firm working for the town, on Monday unveiled a set of recommended tweaks to the SCDOT’s contentious proposal, which calls for the demolition of the island’s existing U.S. 278 bridges and the construction of a new, six-lane bridge.
The firm suggested that the SCDOT build two three-lane bridges instead of one six-lane bridge, among other things.
But that did not win over three Town Council members, who argued that the SCDOT plan is fundamentally flawed, and that by simply proposing adjustments to the state’s proposal, the consultant’s tentative stance on U.S. 278 did not satisfy them.
Fundamental flaws
The three expressed a litany of concerns about issues outside of MKSK’s current purview, including the SCDOT’s scope of study for the project, the state’s traffic analysis and existing capacity issues on Hilton Head, among other things.
“An analogy might be that an architect designs your house. You’re not really satisfied with what it looks like, but you begin to make modifications to the size of windows and the doors and the paint color,” said Ward 3 council member David Ames, who is in favor of two eastbound bridge lanes and three westbound lanes.
“I don’t necessarily think that we are in a position (where) all of this work that we’re doing needs to be focused and funneled on something that hasn’t proven itself to be a worthy project to begin with,” Ward 4 representative Tamara Becker said. “Who are we serving? What is our agenda? ... I can’t support going forward with the concepts brought forth by SCDOT.”
“It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix what SCDOT has put in front of us,” Ward 1 council member Alex Brown added. “What I’m proposing ... is that we simply say to SCDOT, ‘No thanks, at the moment.’”
Three other representatives and the mayor, though, appeared to be in favor of moving forward with MKSK’s ideas and seeking input from the Beaufort County Council and SCDOT leaders in regard to the firm’s suggestions.
More discussion coming
Mayor John McCann said he was “leaning toward” supporting six lanes of traffic. McCann added that he would ask Town Manager Marc Orlando to bring MKSK’s plan to county officials for consideration.
“We’re at the point now where us and the county have to be somewhere on the same page,” McCann said. “Then we got to go to SCDOT to discuss what we collectively (have) done.”
(The mayor, though, later said the council would not take any action on the issue Monday and would discuss U.S. 278 again next week.)
Bill Harkins, of Ward 2, meanwhile, said he’s ready to share the town’s thoughts with leaders in Columbia and to “start the next level of conversation with SCDOT.”
Council members Tom Lennox, of Ward 5, and Glenn Stanford, of Ward 6, echoed Harkins.
“I am very comfortable in continuing to move along,” Lennox said.
Stanford, who thinks the original SCDOT proposal alone is “dead upon arrival,” added that, “frankly, I think it’s time for us to move on to Columbia.”
“The concepts here versus the concepts put forward by DOT,” he said.
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 4:30 AM.
