Latest on I-73

[vicupstate]

I-73 route to be unveiled

The project is being broken into two parts, North of 95/South of 95. Not much detail on what that will mean. Will one section be finished before the other starts? Anyone know anything?

[krazeeboi]

Jerseyman4, that's your cue.

[Charleston native]

Alright, some progress on this highway! It'll be very interesting to see the route this interstate will take. I'm hoping that it will be close to Florence. That way, development in East Florence to FMU might increase and build up that area of the city.

[Jerseyman4]

Jerseyman4, that's your cue.

My bet will be; the SC 38 and US 501 corridors (not necessarly the highways itself) are most likely to be I-73 through the state. NC has already designated the NC 38 corridor its final segment of I-73 not too long ago. In NC, I-73 construction is taking place through southern Montgomery & northern Richmond counties.

[GSP Tiger]

I'm hoping that it will be close to Florence. That way, development in East Florence to FMU might increase and build up that area of the city.

If it takes the SC-38 and US-501 routing, it will be atleast a county northeast of Florence.

Florence does need some work on its interstate network to handle growth. The first course of action should be extending I-20 to I-73 and up to Wilmington, NC. It would be silly not to build a freeway that will serve as a more direct evacuation route for coastal areas escaping to Columbia, the upstate and Atlanta. North Carolina officials see the need. I'm unsure where South Carolina currently stands. The next idea is constructing a beltway around Florence beginning on its east side.

[Jerseyman4]

Bring I-20 to Wilmington

Haha im going to start another war here in the SC forum

[Charleston native]

Bring I-20 to Wilmington

Haha im going to start another war here in the SC forum

Actually, IMO, I-20 needs to be extended to Chas. The city does need another interstate to help with evacuation. Remember, the metro area of Chas is larger than MB or Wilmington; almost 600,000. Logically, it makes more sense being that I-20 already starts in SC...it should start at the beginning near the coast.

[GSP Tiger]

Answer: Construct a four lane divided fully controlled freeway from Charleston to Myrtle Beach.

Had Charleston and Georgetown counties not rested on their laurels, I-73 would kept its southern terminus in Charleston. After reading on residents' narrow minded perspectives and lack of long range planning, it will leave a haunting feeling over the area.

The road can still be built. If officials see the idea of making it a toll road that can help pay for construction of new roads around the state, go for it.

[Jerseyman4]

SCDOT should extend the SC 31 freeway south of the Horry/Georgetown County line but there no plans of doing this.

At least the northern extension into NC is still planned.

[GSP Tiger]

SCDOT should extend the SC 31 freeway south of the Horry/Georgetown County line but there no plans of doing this.

Wikipedia is questionable on that.

Does this remind you of a similar situation with US-17 southeast of Charleston?

This route is still on the books to be built. The funding is not yet there. The same groups of "enviromentailists" want more unnecessary enviromental impact reports when countless studies have already be done and reported the same results within the past fifty years.

[krazeeboi]

Actually, IMO, I-20 needs to be extended to Chas. The city does need another interstate to help with evacuation. Remember, the metro area of Chas is larger than MB or Wilmington; almost 600,000. Logically, it makes more sense being that I-20 already starts in SC...it should start at the beginning near the coast.

That would be a really weird route if I-20 were extended to Charleston. As is, it goes in a neat east-west direction; extending it down to Charleston would make it sharply oriented to the north-south. I see it being extended to Wilmington before Charleston. For one, it would cost the state less to extend it to the NC state line. But I don't see either of those options occurring.

[Charleston native]

...Had Charleston and Georgetown counties not rested on their laurels, I-73 would kept its southern terminus in Charleston. After reading on residents' narrow minded perspectives and lack of long range planning, it will leave a haunting feeling over the area...

...Does this remind you of a similar situation with US-17 southeast of Charleston?

This route is still on the books to be built. The funding is not yet there. The same groups of "enviromentailists" want more unnecessary enviromental impact reports when countless studies have already be done and reported the same results within the past fifty years.

I 100% agree, BoDragon. Many of my hometown's residents completely lacked any foresight in keeping I-73 from entering the city or metro area, and unless something is done, evacuating the area for a hurricane will become more unbearable. There is a consideration for extending the future I-14 from Augusta to Chas. Let's hope people consider this option. Or, maybe they can extend I-73 from MB into Chas?

These environmentalists should just be labeled as obstructionists. They interfered for years with US 17 and people died! Will they do the same for this interstate which seriously needs to be built?

[Jerseyman4]

^All SC has to do is sign it along I-95 from Florence to South of the Border. Once it reaches NC, it can follow US 74-US 421-MLK Parkway to the eastern terminus at Eastwood Drive in Wilmington

US 76 can be a 3DI spur of I-20 east of Florence to US 501/future I-73 hehe

[krazeeboi]

Charleston does seriously need another interstate though, IMO. I-95 should have gone through Charleston, no question about it.

[Jerseyman4]

Realistically speaking, if SCDOT can improve the US 52 and US 17 corridors by making it safer and faster to reach Charleston, it will do fine without any interstate designations. The only real improvements so far was US 52 midway between Florence and Moncks Corner as a 5 lane hwy (continious center turn lane) with full paved right highway shoulders. It is by far, the best road SCDOT built thats non-interstate!

[Charleston native]

Charleston does seriously need another interstate though, IMO. I-95 should have gone through Charleston, no question about it.

I agree completely. While Jerseyman does make a good point about improving the US 52 and 17 corridors, the impression upon many residents will be to use I-26, primarily because it is a limited access freeway. We can't make US 17 and 52 limited access, but there are 2 things that can be done. One, improve US 76 after it splits off from US 52 and widen it all the way to St. George. Second, bring another interstate to the area. I-95 was a terrible compromise between Cola and Chas area leaders, so to offset that, why not build a spur from I-95 starting from around Walterboro, heading east to the city, intersecting I-26 near Chas Southern University, then proceeding more northeasterly, and ending back on I-95 right after Manning. There are some options that many leaders have not considered such as extending Glenn McConnell Expressway more westerly towards Walterboro ending at I-95. That could be another I-95 spur.

Anyways, I saw that they had unveiled the I-73 route yesterday. Does anybody have a link for it?

[BrasilnSC]

Here's the link:

I-73

Looks like they picked a good route that will have the least impact.

[Charleston native]

Thanks for the link!

Great. I guess we can pretty much forget Chas ever getting a terminus for I-73. The NIMBYs in the metro area think that by limiting access to the city, they will save the environment and prevent sprawl...idiots.

[teshadoh]

Latta will become an outlet center Mecca while Dillon will grow as a low-cost retirement center.

Charleston_native - but by denying an extra freeway, they are just curbing additional sprawl that would have occured.

[krazeeboi]

The state still has to find the $2B to fund this though. I wonder if that's one of the rationales behind proposing toll booths for I-95.

[monsoon]

This road is a bad idea. The last thing SC needs is another freeway, especially one that costs $2B. The state is already swimming in traffic congestion, air pollution, and endless walmart sprawl. It's amazing its so bad for a place that doesn't even have 5M residents.

SC would be much better served if they built an instate passenger train system that linked all of the cities to each other and also offered connections to Charlotte. It would help to revive the downtowns, give people options for transit, and there are the other obvious advantages. Will this happen, not in our lifetimes. Expect instead to see more of SC paved over to make way for the automobile, sprawl, and more congestion.

[BrasilnSC]

This road is a bad idea. The last thing SC needs is another freeway, especially one that costs $2B. The state is already swimming in traffic congestion, air pollution, and endless walmart sprawl. It's amazing its so bad for a place that doesn't even have 5M residents.

SC would be much better served if they built an instate passenger train system that linked all of the cities to each other and also offered connections to Charlotte. It would help to revive the downtowns, give people options for transit, and there are the other obvious advantages. Will this happen, not in our lifetimes. Expect instead to see more of SC paved over to make way for the automobile, sprawl, and more congestion.

I'm all for less congestion, less sprawl, and mass transit but I don't see a passenger train system working here unless it is connected to cities in the North. Myrtle Beach is a major tourist attraction with most visitors coming from the north (all you see is Ohio license plates). This road is needed for this purpose, evacuation, and it will bring jobs to an area with the highest unemployment rate in the state. Make it a toll road and let the tourists pay for it.

[Jerseyman4]

Id like to know what is the point of improving the SC 38/US 301 corridor between I-95 and the northern end of the Marion bypass? Spend money on this highway improvement that increases highway capacity now but when I-73 gets built, it was all pointless to expand capacity because it is all getting bypassed.

Overall, the more this project bypasses 38 and 501, the more it should end up as a toll route to be its own seperate road period. The more you tie in existening highways as much as possible, it should make I-73 through the state a free road.

[Fiddlestix]

"Route Revealed for New Beach Interstate / 2B"

That's what was above the masthead of today's Greenville News. I'm interested in this. Enough for it to grab my attention and turn to page 2B. But at least in my edition there was no such story there. Or anywhere else in the paper as far as I could tell, unless they stuck it in City People or other unlikely places I didn't look through.

So, what's the deal with this story (that was apparently "ghost-written")? I had to look around to find out. And of course I was remiss for not coming here first. Anyway, having done some legwork, I may as well share it -- even though the opinions here are excellent reading as well. If you want to get in on the conversation, consider some of these links.

Here's what The State had to say (basically one paragraph that provides no more information than the Greenville News' masthead): http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/14706391.htm

Here's a link to the latest information, including the May 30 press release on the route: http://www.i73insc.com/default.shtml

Here's a link to the proposed corridor as it runs through South Carolina: http://www.i73insc.com/download/DEIS_map/i-74_map_small.pdf

I-73 in South Carolina has had a colorful, one might even say "mythical," history. If you want to catch up on it, I recommend this web site: http://www.gribblenation.com/conway_bypass/i73.html

An excellent detailed overview of the entire route (state-by-state) is here: http://www.aaroads.com/high-priority/corr05.html

Not everyone wants a new Interstate running into South Carolina. Arguments against it include cost, questionable utility, environmental and historical impact and, locally, the prospect that after money is spent, the other states may not build it out (which would upset all the assumptions on which the construction was undertaken). Here's a site that critiques "wasteful" road projects discussing the reasons why I-73 doesn't make sense (even though the argument is directed at the Virginia segment, the points dovetail with the points South Carolina opponents would make): http://www.taxpayer.net/road2ruin/roads/i73va.htm

Then again, there are people who make the case for such a highway: http://www.i-73sc.com/

Hats off to the Greenville News to alerting me to this. And to The State for not bothering to explain it, basically compelling me to go to the SCDOT web site where I could learn about the route. But mostly, hats off to UP posters for being on top of this. Now I'll go back through the posts above and get some information that my local paper forgot to print today....

[Fiddlestix]

Expect instead to see more of SC paved over to make way for the automobile, sprawl, and more congestion.

A letter in today's Greenville News is representative of the prevailing attitude that will make your observation prescient for years to come (see the last letter): http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs..../605310396/1010

The letter writer takes issue with a recent editorial that (in cautious language) said this time -- and only this time -- a $5 annual fee imposed on vehicles registered in Greenville County would be a good way to help fund the public transportation (buses). The writer wonders how the editorial could be so absurd as to advocate for a fee (the whopping $5 per year, or about 2 gallons of gas) to be imposed on car drivers who don't use the public transportation that the fee would go towards improving (or maintaining).