No more toll? Hilton Head leaders discuss making Cross Island free after coronavirus
If you like cruising by the toll booths on Hilton Head Island’s Cross Island Parkway without plunking change, the town may have good news for you.
Hilton Head Island town manager Steve Riley said Wednesday that he and other town leaders are discussing the possibility of permanently dropping the $1.25 toll, which has been waived since March 20 due to the coronavirus.
The Cross Island Parkway toll is scheduled to expire July 1, 2021, when the S.C. Department of Transportation makes the last payment on the $81 million road.
“Do people want to engage with toll booth workers and exchange money?” Riley asked in a Wednesday teleconference about the coronavirus. “It’s scheduled to expire next summer, but how we make it stop right now?”
Riley said he will discuss with SCDOT and state representatives how to pay the remainder of money owed on the Cross Island Parkway now — thus eliminating the need for the toll.
How is the Cross Island Parkway financed?
The tolls were first collected in 1995.
Roy Tolson, SCDOT’s director of innovative finance and tolls, said in 2018 that the department makes yearly payments of $3.1 million toward the project debt.
If the DOT were paying off only the project debt, the Cross Island Parkway could be debt free using its yearly revenue of $8.3 million, according to DOT records. But the department must also pay for the toll collection facilities and staff, which Tolson said costs an additional $3.2 million a year to operate.
In the nearly 25 years since tolls were first collected, the project has hit some financial snags.
Revenue was unexpectedly low in the early 2000s because more drivers than anticipated obtained a Palmetto Pass — a prepaid pass that drivers use to pay a discounted toll.
After nearly a decade of deficit, the department raised the toll from $1 to $1.25 for two-axle vehicles in 2008.
In 2013, revenue from that higher toll got the project back on track, resulting in a $2.4 million surplus, according to previous Island Packet reporting. Tolson said the department used that surplus to complete a resurfacing project in 2019.
The Cross Island is a common route for those who work or live on the south end of the island and, from the beginning, it has seen consistent usage.
In July 2018, drivers made 845,000 trips across it. Tolson noted that’s around 50,000 more trips than in July 2004.
The Cross Island is one of only two toll roads in the state, and Tolson said it’s considered a “destination toll facility.” That means it does not have a high toll violation rate because tourists tend to plan for the toll or even purchase a Palmetto Pass for their visit, he said.
South Carolina’s other toll road, the Southern Connector near Greenville, has increased its toll three times to help cover the costs of the road, according to the Greenville News.
That upstate toll road is set to be paid off in 2051.
The Southern Connector has not dropped its toll during the coronavirus pandemic, but instead suspended cash operations and is mailing bills for the toll to cars that pass through, according to its website.
