The tolls are gone! Hilton Head’s Cross Island Parkway is now fare-free. What to know
The tolls are gone!
The Cross Island Parkway has officially dropped its $1.25 fare on Hilton Head Island. The tolls ended at 11:59:59 p.m. Wednesday, a few days before the Fourth of July.
Signs will be at the island’s toll plaza starting Thursday to remind drivers to use caution and slow down, but not to stop, according to the S.C. Department of Transportation.
The plaza will be removed in the coming months by an SCDOT contractor, according to the state agency.
The Cross Island is a common route for people who live or work on Hilton Head’s south end. Tolls were first collected on the parkway in 1998 to repay bonds that were issued to build the road, among other things.
The tolls were dropped from March 20 to June 19 last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Town leaders, including former Town Manager Steve Riley, discussed trying to drop the tolls permanently following that closure.
But Riley last June said “it quickly became apparent that we would have to find the money (to pay off the bridge), and that wasn’t in the cards for us.”
When previously asked how the SCDOT could stay on schedule and drop the Cross Island’s tolls this year, even after the three-month closure in 2020, an agency official said the project’s bond maturity date was set and, by state law, that’s when toll collections had to end, regardless of COVID-19 and hurricane evacuation toll suspensions.
The Island Packet has compiled a guide on how you can return a Palmetto Pass. Read more here: https://bit.ly/CrossIsland
