Terminal Surprise

Below-expectation total-cost estimate and Sanford's grant proposal are wonderful news

Horry County residents no doubt were braced for bad news on what the long-anticipated guaranteed maximum price for construction of the proposed air passenger terminal would be. From virtually the day that an Horry County Council majority decided to build the terminal west of the runway at Myrtle Beach International Airport, the projected cost of the 14-gate structure started rising and never stopped, mainly due to the escalating cost of concrete and steel.

So what a pleasant surprise it was last week when the county's construction management firm announced that the guaranteed maximum price for the terminal building itself would be $300,000 below budget - just under $183 million. As if that weren't good news enough, Gov. Mark Sanford proposed Thursday that the General Assembly put $15 million, over two years, toward construction of the terminal.

The guaranteed maximum price means construction manager Skanska USA, and not county government, will pay any cost overruns above that figure. Just as County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland said, this is a "tremendous Christmas gift" for those who care about our communities' economic future.

Readers should remember that financing and design costs will be added to that $183 million guaranteed price. But Airport Director Bob Kemp was probably right in predicting last week that the total cost of the project won't exceed the most recent estimate, made last summer, of about $229 million. The Sanford allocation, if legislatively approved, would allow the county to borrow less money to finance the project, incrementally reducing financing costs. The local legislative delegation, of course, should work for passage of the state grant next year.

All this good news likely won't mollify critics of the project, who contend that the current east-side terminal works just fine for our small coastal communities. Some will cite AirTran Airways' announcement this week that the airline won't resume service to Myrtle Beach next spring - leaving our airport for good - as further evidence the west-side terminal project is a boondoggle.

AirTran's departure is disappointing news. The competing airline on the Myrtle Beach to Atlanta link, Delta, now will lose incentive to keep its fares low. But the airline accounted, on average, for only 5 percent of the airport's departures, and seasonally at that. It has not been present most winters.

Moreover, two charter air services plan to begin scheduled flights to Myrtle Beach in time for spring golf season - albeit not to Atlanta. Spirit Air has increased its Myrtle Beach offerings this year. And even though arrivals and departures at the airport are down for this year, future air travel here is likely to increase. Our communities' continuing growth - and the tourism sector's budding effort to improve the quality and volume of Myrtle Beach advertising nationally - virtually guarantee that.

To be sure, the existing terminal could handle near-term growth. But even though it's only 13 years old, its scale is too small. It's poorly laid out for post-Sept. 11, 2001, air travel.

The new terminal, in contrast, will be able to handle air-traffic expansion for years to come. Think of it as a symbol of our communities' enormous economic potential. Once it's built and operating - at what we now know will be a reasonable cost with no liability to county taxpayers - local folks will wonder why the project was ever controversial.