What do you think about I-73? SC Gov. McMaster says funding will be coming
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Monday said the fight for Interstate 73 is not over.
“I’ll keep on pushing for it until we get it done,” McMaster told reporters after attending the grand opening of the state’s first Buc-ee’s in Florence.
“I wish we could have gotten started in this legislative session, but we will keep pushing and we will eventually get it done.”
The governor’s pledge is significant because it means the long-planned and never-built interstate isn’t dead yet.
McMaster last year had requested lawmakers allocate $300 million to begin constructing the leg of I-73 that would connect S.C. 22, near Conway, to I-95, near Latta. The full I-73, if it’s ever built, would run from Myrtle Beach to Michigan.
But state lawmakers rejected McMaster’s ask, putting the state’s budget surplus into a tax rebate program instead of infrastructure.
“I was disappointed because that was very high on my list,” McMaster said. “The Pee Dee, the Grand Strand, that is an area that does not have that kind of access, although most of the areas of the state have that or something close to it.”
McMaster said I-73 is needed because it will provide an evacuation route to the Grand Strand during major storms and will boost the area’s economy. He noted that I-73 “would expand” Horry and Georgetown county’s already-booming tourism economy.
But what do YOU think?
Answer the questions below to give us your thoughts on I-73 and if building it is a good idea.
