Check your mail! Those who commented on Hilton Head bridge plan may get reply this week
The S.C. Department of Transportation plans to respond this week to about 95% of the 500 or so written public comments about the U.S. 278 corridor project, an SCDOT official said Friday.
About 5% of the responses, meanwhile, will be sent out next week before the end of the year.
Craig Winn, the project manager, told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that residents will receive the responses directly. The SCDOT messages will be distributed via email and postal mail.
The state also plans to launch a new FAQ on its U.S. 278 public hearing website soon, Winn said, with answers to some of the most common questions about the sprawling, $290 million project.
SCDOT wants to tear down the existing bridges from Bluffton to Hilton Head Island and replace them with a single, six-lane bridge.
The state’s formal responses to the public comments — which were collected this past summer — could serve as a bellwether on how SCDOT plans to move forward with the contentious project.
That’s because SCDOT will craft an updated version of its favored U.S. 278 construction plan, or “preferred alternative,” based on the public comments and other community feedback and submit it to the Federal Highway Administration for review, said Jared Fralix, assistant Beaufort County administrator, in a previous interview.
SCDOT expects to have that updated plan ready by early 2022, agency spokesman Pete Poore wrote in an October statement. The plan will be released to the public after it is first shared with “project partners” and the highway administration, he wrote.
The state is seeking a Finding of No Significant Impact from the federal government — a document that explains how a construction project will not significantly impact the environment — so it does not have to complete a time-consuming environmental impact statement for its U.S. 278 plan.
Fralix in October said he believes SCDOT will “modify the (original) plan just a little bit.”
That’s partly because SCDOT, he said, submitted the initial version of its preferred alternative to the Federal Highway Administration earlier this year to receive a preliminary go-ahead on the project.
Because the preferred alternative has already set a high bar in the eyes of the federal government, Fralix said, there must be a strong justification to change a significant component of the plan in the coming months.
“It’s a balance between impacts and public comments,” Fralix said.
The state, Poore wrote, believes it will receive an approved Finding of No Significant Impact in June 2022.
That would be a blow to local critics of the preferred alternative, who have argued that SCDOT should go back to the drawing board because, among other things, its scope of study for the project was too limited.
SCDOT hopes to begin construction on the project in late 2023 or early 2024.
What else is going on?
Beaufort County Administrator Eric Greenway recently signed an intergovernmental agreement between the county and S.C. Transportation Infrastructure Bank, or SCTIB, so the county can receive $120 million for the project.
The county has secured a total of about $292.3 million for the project, including the $120 million from the SCTIB, according to the agreement, Winn and previous reporting from the newspapers.
SCDOT in July said the estimated cost for the preferred alternative would be roughly $289.9 million.
The SCTIB agreement reveals that:
Beaufort County must provide additional funding to complete the U.S. 278 project if the amount of money needed to finish construction exceeds roughly $292.3 million. The SCTIB’s maximum financial assistance is $120 million.
Any “material changes” to the project’s scope that are proposed by Beaufort County or SCDOT — such as a change that “materially increases” the total cost of the project — will require the review and approval of the SCTIB’s board of directors.
If the project is not completed by Dec. 31, 2028, Beaufort County has to reimburse the SCTIB for the bank’s prior disbursements. (If “exigent circumstances,” though, prevent the county or SCDOT from finishing the project on time, the SCTIB “in its discretion” can grant an extension for the completion date.)
Beaufort County must report to the SCTIB “at least quarterly” on the project’s status, including updates on its design, right-of-way acquisition, environmental approvals, construction and cost, among other things.
The SCTIB will be provided “full and complete access” to all records and information related to the project’s funding sources.
How will the project be funded?
According to the agreement between Beaufort County and the SCTIB, along with previous reporting from the newspapers, the U.S. 278 project will be funded with:
Beaufort County’s one-cent transportation sales tax: $80 million
Beaufort County road impact fees: $12.3 million
Beaufort County general obligation bonds: $7 million
Town of Hilton Head Island right-of-way dedication: $3.35 million
Federal Guideshare funds: $4.2 million
SCDOT bridge replacement funds: $65.5 million
A SCTIB grant: $120 million
A multimillion-dollar cost increase
The estimated price tag for the U.S. 278 project was roughly $272 million in summer 2020. But a year later, SCDOT released its preferred alternative and said its cost would total about $290 million.
What happened?
The state initially had planned to use $43.5 million in SCDOT bridge replacement funds to address U.S. 278’s deficient eastbound lanes over Mackay Creek, Winn said in a previous interview.
The transportation agency, though, later amended its estimate and projected that $65.5 million in bridge replacement funds were actually needed for its plan, Winn said in July.
The bridge replacement funds, he said, are specifically set aside to address the eastbound lanes over Mackay Creek.
SCDOT increased its cost estimate because the state drilled holes into the earth below U.S. 278 to determine how deep the newly proposed bridge foundation would have to go to meet South Carolina’s current seismic design standards, among other things, Winn said.
The agency confirmed that the new bridge will require a deeper foundation, he said.
The addition of a pathway for runners and bicyclists along the proposed bridge also affected the state’s need for bridge replacement funds, Winn said.
Reporter Laura Antunez contributed to this story.
