COLUMBIA — Doubt, resignation and the fog of confusion.
Area leaders are grappling with all three, as they confront the prospect of a new bridge they argue won’t have enough lanes. Federal funding is largely paying for the replacement of the Back River Bridge, but the Georgia Department of Transportation is leading the project.
That leaves South Carolina without much influence.
Unfortunately, local leaders say S.C. stands to be greatly affected, and they have issued a warning: Traffic will have to squeeze from a future four-lane U.S. 17 onto a future two-lane Back River Bridge. There will be a frequent jam, and safety and commerce will suffer.
The proposed solution, according to Georgia and S.C. transportation officials, is for the S.C. Department of Transportation to later construct a “parallel bridge structure” next to the new bridge as a means of adding lanes.
In interviews last week, Craig Forrest, an at-large SCDOT commissioner who lives in Sun City, aired his frustration with the project.
“This is very difficult for the average person to understand, and that’s why there is so much confusion,” he said. Forrest worked in transportation planning for more than 27 years in the Maryland Department of Transportation and then for Baltimore County.
“There are hard, significant, relevant questions on both sides of the river that are going to be very, very difficult to answer,” he said.
What can South Carolina do? “For us to continue to make our point is probably moot in the sense that we certainly don’t want to hold the project up,” he said. Jasper County Council chairman Henry Etheridge and others have acknowledged the same.
“In fact I don’t even think we could,” Forrest said. “It’s kind of late in the ball game.” On April 5, Georgia awarded a $14.4 million construction contract to build the new bridge, which will be ready in 2016. Federal funds will pay for 80 percent, and Georgia and South Carolina will split the rest, 90-10. The current, 59-year-old bridge will be torn down.
“There are all different kinds of stories out there,” said Forrest, adding that the transportation agency will likely distribute a “news blurb” or summary handout.
That isn’t in the works.
“We do not have anything planned at this time,” said Mark Lester, SCDOT director of planning and environmental, in an email Friday. “However, we are in the midst of the design and environmental phase and will have a public meeting later this year.”
Joint talks?
Apparently, also not in the works: A joint effort between the two states’ transportation secretaries toward a bi-state plan to add more lanes to the new bridge. This month, state and local officials from Jasper County called for the two states to team up on a solution.
But in recent days, South Carolina leaders said they were unaware of any joint talks. And by Friday afternoon, a GDOT spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether anything was underway with South Carolina.
Public comments on the bridge plan were to be submitted to the agency by April 12. On Friday, an open records request submitted to SCDOT for the letters had not been fulfilled.
At least two are known. Jasper County administrator Andrew Fulghum and Hardeeville city manager Bob Nanni both wrote to argue for a four-lane — not two-lane — new Back River Bridge.
These aren’t sudden demands.
In 2008 there was a meeting of the two states’ transportation agencies, the Federal Highway Administration, Chatham County — Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission and others to examine the site of the future Jasper Ocean Terminal and its supporting roadways.
At the time, SCDOT recommended the replacement bridge have four lanes. But Georgia said no, “because of potential impacts to wildlife refuge and delays may require bridge to be weight restricted,” according to a meeting summary.
On Thursday Forrest also aired doubts about South Carolina’s plan to add lanes after the new bridge is completed.
“As a taxpayer or citizen, can you imagine us, when the (U.S. 17) roadway project goes forward, that we would add an additional lane to a brand new bridge?” said Forrest. “That is so silly that it doesn’t even merit consideration.”
Finding the money to do it is a constant struggle. SCDOT has estimated that it needs $29 billion over the 20 years to maintain and upgrade the current roads and bridges.
“Certainly I can’t see a situation where we would fund a completely new parallel structure,” Forrest said. “I just don’t see it, as far as the state is concerned.”