Hilton Head Island must step in now to stop train wreck coming on 278 gateway | Opinion

We are founders of the Coalition of Island Neighbors (COIN), an advocacy group of Hilton Head Island residents united to recognize, evaluate and address issues that affect island residents. Our goal is to review common challenges and develop common ground on positions and approaches in order to advocate for improvements to the Island community.

One of our areas of great concern is the U.S. 278 Gateway Corridor Project.

A South Carolina statute gives “veto” power over the SCDOT project to the Hilton Head Island Town Council. This is a valuable town asset.

COIN supports the concept of the establishment of the U.S. 278 Corridor Committee and its efforts. COIN members have attended the committee meetings. While the committee produced guiding principles and completed its recommendations to the Town Council in order to evaluate SCDOT’s six “reasonable alternatives,” they did not recommend any alternative to the Town Council.

COIN believes there are other issues not addressed by the committee where additional community input is vital to success:

1. The project scope is insufficient. Traffic increases cannot be accommodated without connectivity to the Cross Island Parkway. SCDOT recently reported to the committee that it had hired two engineering firms who performed traffic simulations on the alternatives, which included the Cross Island Parkway.

The project scope ends, however, before the parkway and none of the six alternatives connect to the parkway. No data from the engineering firms was provided. SCDOT has now denied a FOIA request for the data by a member of COIN.

2. All SCDOT alternatives include six lanes and create significant, additional negative impacts on the Stoney community. This conflicts with the Stoney Area Initiative Plan, the town’s Comprehensive Plan and the guiding principles developed by the committee, all of which were adopted by the Town Council.

3. An initial assessment, as provided by SCDOT to the committee on Dec. 11, 2019, shows the intersection problems in the U.S. 278 Corridor worsen with any of the six alternatives. SCDOT has not updated that analysis.

Since this project is of a once-in-a-generation magnitude in impact and taxpayer cost, COIN recommends the town engage a consulting firm to do the following:

1. Analyze the projected peak capacity traffic volume compared to SCDOT’s average daily volume to determine if there is a less invasive solution.

Current traffic congestion is problematic only 5% of the time (weekday mornings inbound and weekday evenings outbound and summer Saturday mornings outbound and summer Saturday afternoons inbound).

2. Review the yet-undisclosed reports SCDOT has from two engineering firms and model traffic impact of the SCDOT alternatives compared to options successfully used in other communities, including through traffic/no intersection and limited access roadways.

3. Model a four-lane, through traffic alternative solution, with no stop-traffic intersections. This will reduce the footprint, lower construction and maintenance costs, and have no-to-minimal disruption to the Stoney community.

4. Develop a “Community Mitigation Plan” to prevent additional impact and reduce the current impact on the Stoney community.

5. Include comparative construction costs, maintenance costs and capacity estimates.

This firm will bring the technical expertise to utilize the committee’s guiding principles, respect the town’s adopted plans, honor the Gullah heritage by protecting the Stoney community, reflect the island character and create the U.S. 278 Gateway we desire and deserve.

Neither the committee nor the town staff have this expertise. In fact, town staff recommends that discussion of mitigation be postponed until after SCDOT has chosen its “final proposed route.”

We firmly believe that now is the time to have impact on this generational project. Waiting for SCDOT to develop its “preferred alternative” will be too late for Town Council to impact the final design.

SCDOT has hired and directed its experts. The town needs its own expert to ensure we get the world class gateway that addresses our community values and our traffic management needs.

Patsy Brison and Risa Sreden Prince of Hilton Head Island may be reached at coinhiltonhead@gmail.com.