We must have an unbiased, independent review of the flawed Corridor Project plan

The Corridor Project would get an “F” from any business or engineering school.

We know that one of our four bridges is nearing its age limit and that we have a traffic problem.

But around 2017 and without any analysis, a small secret group — the Greater Island Council — decided that the cure was to replace all four bridges and build a six-lane expressway.

Using proxy groups and others— as well as approximately $500,000 worth of misleading advertising — the Greater Island Council got citizens to vote for the 2018 sales tax referendum (which supported their plan).

The Town created a Corridor Committee, but it was stacked with Greater Island Council and Chamber members. Thus, despite many meetings and much citizen input, the Corridor Committee ignored warnings and whitewashed the six-lane bridge and expressway plan.

Plenty of warnings

Here were just some of the warnings:

▪ Congestion occurs only during one-way worker and tourist peaks, and it is mainly caused by the lights at Squire Pope and Spanish Wells roads. Those lights only pass about 50% to 60% of the traffic, and they may waste more capacity than extra lanes provide.

▪ About half of the peak traffic is to and from the Cross Island Parkway, but the county’s scope stops short at Squire Pope Road — and the state Department of Transportation’s scope stops at Spanish Wells Road. As a result there is an unplanned and unfunded gap in the plan.

▪ The state Department of Transportation’s plans assume regionwide growth of 39% by 2045 — but that may not be valid for Hilton Head, which is already nearing build-out.

▪ Focusing on six-lane bridges and expressways precludes other potential solutions.

Too costly

The state Department of Transportation spent two years engineering the six-lane bridge and expressway plan, including nine road and 14 intersection variations.

This project was initially advertised at $240 million, but recent data shows it may reach $356 million — and it could go higher since we still can’t factor in potential things like missing links, community and environmental costs, etc.

However, we already know one cost: $43.5 million to replace one ailing bridge.

We could replace that span and still have money to better solve our traffic problems.

Too much secrecy

Here is another issue that has emerged regarding the project: secrecy.

While citizen comments were dismissed, the Greater Island Council members used back-door maneuvering to inject two additional parts into the mix: the Stoney Flyover and the Linear Park.

While these may be great ideas, they were added without knowledge of local councils or the public — and with no attention to community impact or benefit/cost analyses.

One elected official has asked if there is “a backroom secret council.”

The answer is, “Definitely!”

This project involves years of construction, neighborhood turmoil and hidden costs likely to raise taxes.

There may be less painful options that can produce better results — but quantitative end-end traffic and benefit/cost analyses vs. alternatives have been shunned.

We need a review

An Independent Engineering Review is desperately needed to sort this out.

In 2018 the Greater Island Council bamboozled us into voting for this project without details. The Greater Island Council dislikes transparency.

But citizens and councils must be informed buyers, and we need an independent review to understand the missing and unknown parts before approving any plan. It would be the equivalent of having an inspection done before buying a house.

Differences exist

Here is what citizens want:

▪ They want end-to-end solutions tested to work.

▪ They want options, performance, costs and tradeoffs enumerated by a transparent independent review; in fact, nearly 4,000 people have signed a petition supporting this.

(The petition can be found at: http://chng.it/gxXykZBv.)

This, however, is what the Greater Island Council wants:

▪ It wants to rush us into a six-lane expressway with missing links, rising costs, hidden taxes, poor traffic performance, no end-to-end analysis and backroom add-ons pushed via political maneuvering.

In February I wrote to the Greater Island Council and asked it to support an independent review. I never received an answer, and that says a lot.

Local councils must not let the Greater Island Council delay, dilute or stack a transparent independent review.

Steven Baer served on Beaufort County Council from 2007 to 2013.