Which Horry County road projects are most important? RIDE III commission begins work

How should $530 million of taxpayer money be spent?

For the six members of the RIDE III Sales Tax Commission, that’s the question they will spend the next eight months answering.

The commission, which held its first meeting Thursday, must decide which infrastructure projects should be part of RIDE III, the county’s next road building program. Once commissioners develop a list projects — their deadline for doing this is May 17 — Horry County Council will give an up-or-down vote on the list. If approved, the projects will then go to the voters, who have the final say on whether the one percent sales tax should pay for that work. Should the referendum pass, the tax collection would begin on May 1, 2017.

Commission Chairman Eddie Dyer stressed that educating voters about the need for the program is critical.

“There’s no Plan B,” he said. “Columbia’s not going to help us. Washington can’t help us. And the only way we’re going to get better roads and new roads and repavings and all that in this county is to do it ourselves.”

Dyer also chaired an advisory committee that whittled $1.94 billion in possible projects to a short list for the commission to consider. He suspects the commission’s primary role will be prioritizing the committee’s recommendations, though he did say a few new projects may be proposed.

Here’s a snapshot of those discussed Thursday:

U.S. 501 improvements

Description: Project calls for six-lane widening from S.C. 31 to S.C. 544 interchange. It also includes improving parallel roads. Postal Way would be extended east to Waccamaw Pines. Additionally, Middle Ridge Drive would be extended in both directions: east to West Perry Road and west to Singleton Ridge Road. Intersection improvements would be included as well.

Cost: $50 million

Why it’s needed: “This is the bottleneck right now,” said Andy Markunas, head of the county’s engineering department. “This is all year long twice a day or all day in some cases.”

Paving dirt roads

Description: This involves paving 100 of the 645 miles of county dirt roads. County staff will provide the commission with a list of high priority roads.

Cost: $60 million

Why it’s needed: The commission will consider roads with the most homes as well as other priority paths. “There are some areas that I feel like I want to look at that have some connector roads,” said commission member Frankie Blanton of Loris.

Resurfacing roads

Description: Resurfacing 100 miles of roads. Officials said the repaving money could be spent on local or state roads.

Cost: $15 million

Why it’s needed: “I saw a Volkswagen go into a pothole on 544 the other day and I swear I don’t think it came out,” Dyer said. “The state is not going to a thing about any of it as far as I can tell.”

Beach realignment of U.S. 501

Description: Located in Myrtle Beach, this project would reroute 501 at the intersection with Broadway Street by connecting the major thoroughfare with 7th Avenue North.

Cost: $13.9 million

Why it’s needed: “For a long time the city has wanted to make a better first impression for when people come into the city on 501,” Dyer said. “This would clean up that intersection and get people down to 17 and Ocean Boulevard in a straighter shot.”

Southern Evacuation Lifeline (SELL)

Description: RIDE III money would not pay for completing this 27-mile project, which is estimated to cost about $650 million and would create a link between the South Strand and the inland. Officials say the $25 million proposed for RIDE III would pay for environmental studies and right of way land purchases near the Waccamaw River.

Cost: $25 million

Why it’s needed: “It would provide another route for residents and visitors on the south end of Horry County ... to get out in case of a hurricane or even just to travel,” Markunas said. “The main concern was where it crosses the Waccamaw River ... all that’s protected except for a couple little strips now. The word is if you don’t buy the right of way now this basically kills the project forever.”

Conway perimeter road

Description: Nearly two miles long, this road would be built along with a multi-use trail from U.S. 378 to U.S. 701 South.

Cost: $18.4 million

Why it’s needed: “This basically completes that half-circle loop down 701 South,” Markunas said.

Forestbrook Road widening

Description: Project would cover 4.5 miles and widen and/or add turn lanes to the busy connector road from U.S. 501 to Dick Pond Road. It also includes accommodations for pedestrians and cyclists such as sidewalks and wider travel lanes.

Cost: $89.1 million

Why it’s needed: “No turn lanes,” Markunas said. “Lot of development has happened and is going to continue to happen on that road.”

Carolina Forest Boulevard widening

Description: Project would widen and add traffic lights in a nearly 5 miles of Carolina Forest’s main artery. it includes a multi-use trail, too.

Cost: $54.7 million

Why it’s needed: Long plagued by congestion, this project is billed as one that would ease those travel pains. “That’s a really important project,” said Brent Schulz, a former Horry County councilman for Carolina Forest who sits on the commission.

S.C. 9 East improvements in Loris

Description: Expand road to four lanes from the point where the highway currently narrows to Highway 66 — about 1.2 miles. Road passes near schools. Project would also include curb/gutter addition and sidewalks.

Cost: $21.7 million

Why it’s needed: “Makes it safer at the schools,” Dyer said. “I’ve never been up there on a travel day ... but I’m told that that’s a pretty big bottleneck there at 9 and 66. and traffic backs up.”

U.S. 701 North widening

Description: Four-mile project would widen U.S. 701 North from S.C. 319 to S.C. 22. Additionally, it includes sidewalks and wider travel lanes.

Cost: $65.1 million

Why it’s needed: High traffic stretch includes state Department of Motor Vehicles office and state Department of Transportation maintenance building, as well as an HTC office complex. “You see a lot of accidents there,” Markunas said.

South Strand intersection enhancements

Description: Improvements to U.S. 17 Business intersections at Inlet Square Drive, Atlantic Avenue and the Garden City Connector.

Cost: $19.8 million

Why it’s needed: “They scaled this back to do the bottlenecks, which are the intersections,” Markunas said.

Palmetto Pointe Boulevard extension

Description: Project would extend road to S.C. 544 and include sidewalks and wider travel lanes. Just under a mile, this construction will eventually be paid for by the developer of some nearby property. Officials say the developer must reimburse the county for the cost of the road once his commercial development reaches a specific benchmark.

Cost: $7.5 million.

Why it’s needed: “You have about 10,000 people with basically one way out right now,” Markunas said. “They all drive down Palmetto Pointe Boulevard, which is the main avenue, out to 17. ... This provides a connection to 544 out the back way.”

S.C. 31 extension to North Carolina

Description: RIDE III would not pay for the full cost of this construction, though it would cover most of it, officials said. The nearly 5-mile extension would take S.C. 31 to the North Carolina border. Dyer said local leaders have been in talks with North Carolina officials about what that state will do on its side of the line. The overall project tops $120 million. Officials said additional funding would have to be identified.

Cost: $89.9 million

Why it’s needed: Leaders in northeastern Horry County insist this project could help alleviate traffic problems in Little River and North Myrtle Beach by linking S.C. 31 to the I-74 network in the Tar Heel state. Commission members also said fairness is another reason the project is a finalist for the list. “Everybody is in favor of that as the project for North Myrtle Beach,” Dyer said. “We need to make sure that we try to make it happen for them.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Which Horry County road projects are most important? RIDE III commission begins work."