I-73 plans finding several bumps in the road to Myrtle Beach

In the 20 years since Congress designated Interstate 73, it seems that nothing has happened. There is still not one inch of the road to ride on in South Carolina.

“I would have certainly hoped this thing would have been completed many years ago,” said Robin Tallon, who represented Horry County and the Pee Dee in the U.S. House of Representatives when the new road was conceived.

“It’s been strange. I have really scratched my head, and I don’t know what the problem is.”

Still, the record shows a busy and intricate history of events connected with the long-sought interstate connection for Horry County’s tourist industry and the economically distressed counties to the northwest, with the road nearly ready to build in South Carolina if the money were available.

I-73 would be the first interstate highway connection for what supporters claim is the largest tourism destination in the country without one. The current route takes it through six states from near Myrtle Beach to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

The routing for the road is mostly settled. Most of the planning is complete, as is some of the engineering and right of way acquisition. Work is under way on an intersection and a bridge that are needed for the first phase from I-95 to U.S. 501.

The project has twice been declared the state Department of Transportation’s top priority for new construction.

But new bumps in the still-unbuilt road continue to appear. Conservationists continue to object to the damage and the federal Environmental Protection Agency is threatening to withhold permits. State officials from other regions still question why Myrtle Beach needs a whole new highway. And, just as it was true 20 years ago, there is still no money to build it.

Years of road needs come together

I-73 was designated in the 1991 highway bill, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, as one of 23 new high priority corridors. Four of those were new interstates or major extensions of existing ones.

The desire for an interstate highway connection for Horry County was nothing new at that time. Tourism leaders in Myrtle Beach started pressing for a connection to I-20 or I-95 in the early 1970s, so Tallon was familiar with the issue and looking for a way to help.

His interests came together with those of leaders in West Virginia who had long sought a replacement for the battered two-lane U.S. 52, and others in Michigan who wanted an interstate to connect Jackson and Lansing.

Tallon said in a recent interview that it helped that powerful Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia wanted the road to replace U.S. 52 and connect his area with Myrtle Beach. Byrd thought the U.S. 52 corridor could be used to form a new connection between the industrial north and the ports and beaches in South Carolina.

About 1986, Tallon recalled, “Senator Byrd and I had a study put into the Treasury appropriations bill.” The study showed that the proposed corridor of I-73 was feasible and met the criteria for creating an interstate highway.

The results of that study made it possible to include I-73 as one of the proposed new roads, with a high priority. At the time, even though Congress did not designate any money for the new roads, it seemed as if the interstate highway connection for Horry was now tantalizingly close, Tallon said.

He said he has not stayed in touch with all the details over the years, but realized that money could have been a major holdup.

Backers of I-73 should not feel alone. Of the other three proposed new interstate highways or large additions to existing ones, none have been built.

But Tallon is still confident that I-73 will happen.

“It will be done,” he said. “There is no question that it’s needed. I don’t have to state how important that is. We all know how difficult getting federal funding is right now.”

Route disputes

For almost all of the 20 years since I-73 was designated, supporters and highway departments in the six states the road will cross have been involved in disputes over the route. Those continue, such as the insistence by some officials in Dillon County that the road should go through the county seat of Dillon instead of the smaller town of Latta.

Congress designated a general route for the new corridors but not specific routes, leaving that up to the states.

More opponents than supporters showed up to public meetings in Ohio and Michigan, and both those states abandoned further plans for the new highway by its first decade. Both states cited lack of money and public support.

Virginia struggled through studies, opposition and lawsuits and settled on a plan to build a major section of new road for I-73 and likely connect the rest of it along the existing I-81.

The route in Virginia is still being tweaked, however, as some local officials sought to have it moved closer to an industrial park. The change could require a lengthy and complicated revision to the approved road plan.

West Virginia had broad local support for the road, called King Coal Highway in that state, but also has lacked construction money. A few small sections have been built there.

North Carolina aggressively jumped on the proposal, adopting both I-73 and I-74 and developing the routes largely by improving existing roads.

I-74 was one of the designated interstate extensions in 1991, to run east into North Carolina from Cincinnati. So far, only North Carolina has built any of it.

For 14 years, North and South Carolina dickered over the routes for I-73. If the two states could not agree on where to connect the road, it would not get federal money or federal approval. That was finally settled in 2005.

The plan will create an interstate loop, with I-74 heading east from Rockingham, N.C., to Brunswick County and making a southward turn to connect with S.C. 31, the Carolina Bays Parkway. I-73 heads south into South Carolina from Rockingham and through Marlboro, Dillon and Marion Counties into Horry to connect with S.C. 22, also known as Conway Bypass and Veterans Highway.

North Carolina has about 65 miles of completed sections of I-73 and I-74. The two roads are to run together from near Greensboro to Rockingham.

Route agony in SC

Years of study and public meetings, beginning in 2004, were required to lay out the detailed path of I-73’s 60 miles in South Carolina. At some, residents sobbed upon seeing maps of the road cutting across homes and land their families had occupied for centuries.

Conservationists strongly objected to destruction of wetlands and wildlife habitat required for a new road route, especially the 30 acres of Little Pee Dee River Heritage Preserve that would be destroyed for the I-73 bridge.

Groups including the Coastal Conservation League and Southern Environmental Law Center said from the beginning of the planning that existing roads such as S.C. 9 and S.C. 38 should be improved instead of plowing up a new corridor.

This past year, the state Sierra Club chapter and League of Women Voters also came out against the road because of the environmental damage it will cause.

Sara Nuckles, a member of the state Department of Transportation Commission, objects to the road on those grounds as well as because of the cost, which she says is unnecessary and will take funds from other needed projects in the state.

Nuckles lives in Rock Hill, which is served by I-77. In her latest letter to The Sun News, she outlined how much money Horry County has received for roads from the State Infrastructure Bank, more than other regions. She says that is one reason the county should not get more road money for an interstate.

But the State Infrastructure Bank was created in 1998 mainly to assist Horry County with transportation needs the state had been unable to address in other ways. The bank helped build S.C. 31 and S.C. 22 as well as other projects, but the county had to pitch in some of its own money.

No other location had been required to provide its own money for major road projects until then, and they still are not unless they seek infrastructure bank money.

The bank could be involved in I-73 construction, but the bank could not cough up the minimum $2 billion cost, and if it paid some, under its rules Horry County would have to pay a share and so would the other counties the road will cross. The state passed a law allowing I-73 to be a toll road, but that is not expected to be enough to pay all the costs.

Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President Brad Dean said that Nuckles ‘has aligned herself with special interest groups dedicated to stopping I-73, though she has yet to provide an alternative that will save lives, reduce congestion, grow tourism and create new jobs.”

“While we appreciate her service to our state, we regret she does not share our goal to create jobs and grow our state's economy,” Dean said. “Her suggestion that we need only expand Highway 501 to help ourselves is misguided and lacks any long-term vision.”

While lawmakers look for ways to pay for it, engineering and right of way acquisition continue.

Planning and construction take enough time that even if all the money were available right now, it would take five years to build I-73, said Mitchell Metts, the DOT’s project manager for the road. Metts has been its project manager since planning began in 2003.

Highway officials said when planning started that people would be driving on the road in 2014. That’s still possible for part of the road, if money comes through, Metts said.

And if the permits are all granted. The DOT is working with environmental agencies on the permit. The EPA has said it may deny the permit because of the damage at the heritage preserve and to other wetland areas.

The DOT negotiated with the state Department of Natural Resources for a year over compensation for the damage to the preserve, and settled on a $750,000 payment in 2007 but that may not be enough to satisfy the EPA.

Environmental damage can’t be avoided in building a new roadway, state officials say. They said the route chosen for I-73 is the least damaging while also balancing how many people have to be moved or inconvenienced.

Opponents say the road is not necessary and that the DOT’s studies are flawed because they assume I-73 will be built and do not consider alternatives such as improving other roads seriously enough.

Highway planners say the whole point is to build an interstate, and that studies also found it is less expensive and disruptive to plow a new route than to expand existing roads and move the houses and commercial activities along those.

The hunt for funds

Metts said the DOT beat the odds when it finished the studies for I-73 in three years. It usually takes several more years to finish road plans. But he is not surprised nothing has been built yet.

“Knowing the total anticipated cost was 2-plus billion dollars, we knew it would take a while to find that kind of funding,” Metts said.

“I do hope to see it finished, but realize a substantial funding commitment is needed to make it a reality. I am proud of the work our project team has done to the point to get the project to where it is today. The reality is a lack of funding in these difficult economic times have slowed the project down.”

The National I-73/74/75 Corridor Association revived its efforts in 2010, trying to get all the states to work together for funding and making I-75 part of the mix. I-73 follows part of the existing route of I-75 in Michigan.

Dean is the president of the corridor association. The organization held a lobbying session in Washington in May, looking for money in an expected new highway bill.

“In general, there is still interest throughout the corridor in completing I-73 but with state budget cuts and reduced funding from the federal government, most states have been slow to add new projects or upgrades to their priority list,” Dean said. “Thankfully, South Carolina remains committed to building I-73, and doing so will provide the Grand Strand much needed access to I-95.”

But the condition of the economy and the federal deficit make it harder to get road money. Some of comes from federal gas tax, however, and must be used for transportation construction or repair.

It doesn’t seem possible that it has been 20 years since I-73 was designated, Georgetown County Auditor Linda Mock said. Mock was head of the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce when it endorsed the road in 1996. At the time, the route was to come through Georgetown and on to Charleston.

The proposal received so much opposition that highway officials dropped those plans, and the route was changed to end near Conway, with a possible spur to Georgetown.

Mock said people often talk to her about the road and ask when she thinks it will be built.

She said she tells them, “not in my lifetime.”

Contact Zane Wilson at xtsnscribe@aol.com.