Dig out your quarters: Hilton Head’s Cross Island toll to restart this weekend
Check your windshield for your Palmetto Pass or your center console for a bunch of quarters. The Cross Island Parkway toll on Hilton Head Island is restarting tonight at midnight, according to a news release from the S.C. Department of Transportation.
The toll, which costs $1.25 each way if you’re paying cash and 75 cents if you’re charging to a Palmetto Pass, was dropped on March 20 to limit the contact between drivers and toll collectors during the coronavirus.
After lifting the toll, Hilton Head Town Manager Steve Riley and other local leaders discussed scrapping it permanently.
That didn’t pan out.
Riley said Thursday afternoon “it quickly became apparent that we would have to find the money and that wasn’t in the cards for us.”
The toll is scheduled to end permanently on July 1, 2021, when the highway and bridge to the south end are fully paid off.
According to SCDOT’s news release, recent traffic volumes on the Cross Island Parkway have returned to normal, and at times are exceeding the average vehicle counts at this time last year.
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 9:26 AM.
