RIDE III roads project proposal taking shape, far from set in stone

Horry County’s RIDE III committee is near the tail end of compiling $530 million worth of road projects its chairman said addresses the county’s transportation needs fairly.

However, several committee members from the northern end of the county say the projects are far from set in stone, and only provide a blueprint for the direction the committee is heading.

The current plan addresses the headaches that surround U.S. 501 and additional roads through the rapidly growing Carolina Forest area. It would take about $50 million to add an additional lane to U.S. 501 north and southbound from U.S. 31 to the S.C. 544 interchange, extend Postal Way eastward to Waccamaw Pines and make intersection improvements, and extend Middle Ridge Drive eastward to West Perry Road and west to Singleton Ridge Road.

Driving Carolina Forest Boulevard may get a little easier if the current road plan to widen it from the Covington Lakes subdivision to River Oaks Drive were approved. That project would cost about $54.7 million, and the widening and turn lane additions on Forestbrook Road from U.S. 501 to Dick Pond Road would cost about $89.1 million.

But don’t go honking in joy now that the area’s traffic arteries may be getting a reprieve. This effort is far from official and far from the first shovel in the ground. The proposed RIDE III project will ask voters in 2016 for a one-cent sales tax to help fund the projects, and traditionally, if approved, work wouldn’t begin until the following year, at the earliest.

This committee is charged with identifying the projects, and then a commission will put them in order of how it would like the projects completed, and then the full County Council will vote on whether to put it out to the voters.

Its current plans look at working on intersections along U.S. 17 Business in Garden City and to continue studying the Southern Evacuation Lifeline, which is designed to help residents safely get from the South Strand inland in the event of an evacuation.

Myrtle Beach, under this proposal, would get help on a project its City Council has been looking at for a while — aligning U.S. 501 at its intersection with Broadway Street into Seventh Avenue North.

Eddie Dyer, chairman of the committee, said although there’s still plenty of work to do, the efforts thus far have been focusing on fairness and practicality.

“First and foremost, our job was to be fair,” Dyer said. “At the end of the day, the fairness factor has to be brought into the equation because everyone in the county is going to be paying toward RIDE III if it passes.”

The committee compiled $1.94 billion in road requests and narrowed that list down to what it anticipates RIDE III will raise.

In theory, the committee has identified $355 million in future road projects throughout the county, which would leave about $175 million to be allocated — some of which will be earmarked this week. But there are still some committee members who have yet to give presentations about their projects, so there is still fluidity in the plan.

The committee began its focus in rural areas, then worked its way from the southern part of the county to the northern part.

It used a formula that included a prioritized list from the committee’s 18 members, whether the project is on the Grand Strand Area Transportation Study long-range plan, whether it was on the RIDE II list and whether it had plans for a bike or walking path.

“We’re relying on the knowledge of the representatives on the committee from the various parts of the county as to what they think their area needs most,” Dyer said. “Considering that and factoring in the fairness portion, we are doing as many projects as we can to fulfill our charge from County Council ... while also trying to look to the future and make it not only easier for people to get around the county now, but make it easier for those who come after us to do projects that would complete what we started here.”

The roads identified so far

The committee wasted little time expressing the need for improvements to county roads, so it is considering paving 100 miles of dirt roads and resurfacing 100 miles.

“The population center of the county is somewhere around Carolina Forest, but there are a lot of people who live in the western part of the county and there are roads needs there as well,” Dyer said. “Not to the extent of the more densely populated areas toward the ocean, but there are still infrastructure needs and paving dirt roads is one of them.”

The committee then focused its attention to the south and the need for a Southern Evacuation Lifeline, or a highway that would allow for a smoother evacuation of residents along the southern part of the Grand Strand. The committee is talking about seeing $25 million spent on completing the final studies of the project and purchasing some initial rights of way.

As of now, about $28 million will be proposed for intersection improvements on U.S. 17 Business in Garden City Beach from Inlet Square mall to Melody Lane near Tupelo Bay Golf Club.

“We are reviewing the intersections from Melody Lane to Inlet Square mall to determine what improvements would improve the traffic conditions that exist today,” said Steve Gosnell, assistant county administrator for infrastructure and regulation. “We don’t have a recommended list of intersections at this time but plan to by [Wednesday].”

Constructing a new road with a bike lane from U.S. 378 to U.S. 701 South, which is being called the Conway perimeter road, is being considered. That project is estimated to cost $18.4 million.

The roads to be considered

Chairman Dyer believes about $96 million of the remaining $175 million will be considered immediately at the committee’s meeting Wednesday for two projects — $65 million to widen U.S. 701 from the Homewood area north of Conway to S.C. 22, and $31 million to four-lane S.C. 9 east coming out of Loris. If approved, that leaves about $79 million for the North Myrtle Beach and Little River area.

But committee representatives from the northern part of the county say don’t count on any guarantee for the RIDE program yet because they have not presented their projects.

“I anticipate a fairly good size chunk of money to be appropriated to projects in North Myrtle Beach,” Dyer said, adding one of the more popular projects that will be discussed is extending S.C. 31 to the North Carolina line. “I think there are some questions prior to that that we’ll need to answer before we can vote on it. We’ll need to gauge North Carolina’s interest in that, whether there’s the political will in North Carolina, whether they have the money to do it and whether or not it could be done environmentally to connect where we want it to connect. So, we’re going to have to do some homework on that project.”

An unofficial poll of The Sun News readers showed an overwhelming support for extending S.C. 31 to the North Carolina line. About 80 percent of respondents said they would like to see the extension of S.C. 31.

“North Myrtle Beach will have a significant project one way or another,” Dyer said.

Tracy Edge, a former state representative who is representing an Horry County Council district on the committee, said it’s no surprise what project he would like to see for the area.

“Obviously my first choice of a project way above all others would be the extension of [S.C.] 31 as part of the I-74 network. To support that, obviously the traffic problems through Little River and North Myrtle Beach are pretty substantial and they’re not going to be improved by doing nothing.”

Edge said the Departments of Transportation for South Carolina and North Carolina have an agreement dating back to the mid-2000s that states North Carolina will not participate in an I-73 project, which is a proposed interstate that would connect Myrtle Beach to Michigan, unless it sees progress on I-74. The extension of S.C. 31 to the state line would eventually connect to I-74 in North Carolina.

“That agreement is still in place and I don’t see anything that will take away from it,” Edge said. “For roughly $100 million, we could provide Horry County with its first interstate, and I think that’s very important for economic development purposes.”

Another anticipated project that will be discussed is creating a four-lane highway on S.C. 90, which was a far second place in The Sun News poll.

The county’s planning department gave a presentation to the committee in November projecting large population growth toward and along S.C. 90, which is inland in the northern part of the county.

“I see [S.C.] 90 as the next [S.C.] 544,” Edge said. “It’s an overcrowded two-lane road, much like [S.C.] 707 going through Socastee, as well. I see this as an opportunity to do something about Highway 90 before it becomes what those other two roads became. But that requires a little bit of vision and road-building generally has been a process of playing catch up and not getting ahead. This is an opportunity to get ahead of the curve, for once, and not play catch up.”

Benjy Hardee — a committee member representing Horry County’s District 9, which includes Little River — agreed that there’s still plenty to talk about before the RIDE III committee. Hardee has yet to give his presentation to the committee and said all the talk and planning of $355 million is just that — talk.

“It’s too early in the process to say there’s a definitive amount of money to go anywhere,” Hardee said. “That’s exactly what we’re working on and we’re trying different ways to get there based on priorities. We have eliminated a good many roads already.”

Tony Cox, who lives in North Myrtle Beach but was appointed by the League of Cities to serve in an at-large capacity, listed the S.C. 31 extension and the widening of S.C. 90 as two top projects in the northern portion of the county. He also said the extension of Water Tower Road from S.C. 31 to Champions Boulevard is an important project the committee should consider, which currently has a price tag of $74.7 million.

“That would create another outlet point for the development out there,” Cox said. “There are several important needs in North Myrtle Beach and the north end.”

And Cox, Hardee and Edge vow to make their voices heard on those needs.

“I think it’s a starting point,” Hardee said of the proposed list so far. “I think it’s a work in progress and I think it lends itself to major adjustments, maybe. We won’t know that until we get to the end of the day and see where it is and people make their final adjustments. The probability of that list changing is great.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2015 at 1:55 PM with the headline "RIDE III roads project proposal taking shape, far from set in stone."