Long road ahead: As traffic worsens on Hilton Head, what’s next for the U.S. 278 project?
“If you’re traveling to or from the island, you better pack a snack,” one Lowcountry Facebook user posted on Tuesday.
The quip warned drivers attempting to cross the U.S. 278 bridge to Hilton Head Island of an all-too-familiar obstacle — a standstill caused by an accident, disrupting traffic on the two-lane span.
Delays have become more and more common when traveling during peak traffic periods, which seem to get longer each year — especially throughout spring and summer when the warm weather draws millions of tourists to its beaches each year.
Hilton Head has fewer than 40,000 year-round residents, but 2.5 million visitors a year, according to discoversouthcarolina.com. That means traffic and lots of it.
The traffic jams, an inconvenience for some, have serious consequences for others, including businesses. Sea Pines resident Daryl Morgan told The Island Packet on Wednesday his long-time plumbing provider, based on the mainland, has decided to no longer take work on the island.
“’Our employees spend more time stuck in traffic than at actual jobs,’” Morgan recalled the owner telling him. “It’s not sustainable ... there are people who commute from Bluffton, and they’ve had enough. Someone that I work with on the North End said that it sometimes took her two hours to get home. She lives in Bluffton. Even locals like me who take back ways to avoid circles and busy intersections, we’re all doing that now, so that’s just as congested.”
A Wednesday NextDoor post referenced another business that made the same decision. The Island Packet reached out to the owners, but did not receive a response back.
The answer, according to man, is a new, larger bridge, which is in the works. But where do things stand?
Beaufort County and the town of Hilton Head Island narrowly agreed to a partnership last fall after lengthy disagreements on the design of a new bridge and the lack of citizen oversight, but the project has seen little movement since then.
The town recently formed a citizen advisory committee to help oversee a new study of the 278 corridor, and Beaufort County has simultaneously launched its own review alongside CBB, a Missouri-based transportation company. With two new reviews coming and the project’s final design still in limbo, the project’s next steps, and how long residents will wait for visible progress, are unclear.
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Citizens earn a voice
When Hilton Head’s Town Council approved a memorandum of understanding between itself and Beaufort County, it was only through a contentious 4-3 vote. One of the opponents, Ward 4 Councilwoman Tamara Becker, said she voted against the agreement because it left citizens on the sidelines.
That has since been rectified by the town, which recently created a citizens’ committee to move the town’s next step in the 278 project forward.
Ward 3 Councilman David Ames said the group and town staff will determine what the most important information about the interstate corridor is, and author a proposal to recruit independent firms to gather that data in a new, town-commissioned study.
“There is a segment of the population that is very concerned that the [South Carolina Department of Transportation] work to date has not ferreted out all the options that might benefit the community, and it is the hope of this additional work to discover, if possible, ways of bettering the project,” Ames said.
“It has a lot to do with a community’s dissatisfaction with the scrutiny and logic of the work to date. ... In order for this additional work, to have credibility in the community, community representatives have to be involved in the selection process.”
The committee members appointed by the Town Council after an open application period are engineer Charles Walczak, finance professional Diederik Advocaat, Stoney community representative Willie Young, and Edward Warner. Mayor Alan Perry also sits on the committee.
Advocaat stands out as one of the leading members of an island cadre calling itself the Technical Working Group, which has long criticized Beaufort County and SCDOT’s decision-making on the 278 project. It launched a petition — which over 10,000 residents have signed — opposing the current plan for a six-lane expanded bridge. The group argues a larger bridge won’t address the root cause of congestion on the island — clogged intersections along U.S. 278.
The group has also campaigned for SCDOT to consider a second bridge connecting the island’s South End to the mainland.
“Because the technical working group was the spokesgroup for a large portion of the population, and we are trying to create a direct communication with that segment of the population, it would make sense to me that that group had a representative on the committee,” Ames said of the selection.
Advocaat said while he would’ve wished for more members of the Technical Working Group on the committee, he’s pleased with the selected members.
“I think it was a gutsy move from the town to actually do their own review,” Advocaat said.
Steven Baer, a former Beaufort County councilman and prominent member of the Technical Working Group, also approved of the new committee’s makeup.
“I’m delighted, actually, with the way that committee is structured, and if it’s really an honest effort, I think it will accomplish a lot,” Baer said.
Distrust of county lingers
Hilton Head’s decision to launch its own study closely follows Beaufort County hiring its own firm to examine the 278 corridor. In late 2022, the county submitted a request for proposals from traffic firms interested in the project, but only received one bid from a Missouri firm, CBB.
“We’ve initiated that contract and they’ve begun their work,” Assistant County Administrator Jared Fralix said.
However, many Hilton Head residents, including Advocaat, remain wary of a county government they say has tried to undercut local authority and force the project forward since its inception.
“(Beaufort County) did a quick selection around the end of the year that sort of smells of trying to do things quickly, do things their way and have another review of the same stuff. It’s a total waste of money,” Advocaat said. “It’s quite a silly thing to spend money on this.”
State Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufourt) remains engaged as a facilitator between the town and county as the new studies move forward, Advocaat said.
Fralix said the county and SCDOT are finalizing work on a finding of no significant impact, or FONSI, to submit to the Federal Highway Administration. The FONSI is the next vital step in moving the project forward, and should the FHA accept SCDOT’s findings, the project will enter its final design stage.
Baer and the Technical Working Group published a March 31 letter to the FHA asking the agency to “hold off on any FONSI approval until we see a well-documented and justified plan” for the corridor.
Baer has repeatedly criticized the project for not including well-known congestion points in its scope, particularly ramps and intersections near the convergence of Gumtree Road, the Cross Island Parkway and U.S. 278.
The county’s contract with CBB does account for traffic issues beyond the project’s defined scope, Fralix said.
“They’re looking at an end-to-end simulation to see if the proposed improvements address the traffic not only through the corridor, but just beyond the corridor as well,” Fralix said. “If there’s any assumptions that need to be evaluated further, or designs that could be modified or tweaked, or any kind of stone left unturned to make sure that we had the best possible design, that’s what they’re evaluating.”
The town has yet to provide its municipal consent for any plans. At an October 2022 Town Council meeting, Davis said Hilton Head could rightfully withhold that consent and essentially halt the project.
While the town and county continue their evaluations, island residents and commuters still face a long road ahead before the project is completed, and it remains to be seen how effectively the finished product will address traffic.
The $328 million project doesn’t currently have a publicly posted estimated completion date.
With Hilton Head’s continued growth and popularity drawing more bodies and cars every year, some locals, like Morgan, wonder whether the project’s improvements will keep pace after they’re finally completed or be worth the headaches when construction begins.
“We’re in for a world of hurt in five to 10 years,” Morgan said. “This island’s going to have huge issues.”
