The State Infrastructure Bank board today will tour U.S. 17 and other coastal county roads that have requested aid for projects before deciding whether to pay for them.

The bank received four applications totaling more than $1 billion last month for the approximately $300 million it has available for capital projects. A $138 million application from the state Department of Transportation would pay for most of the $173 million, 22-mile widening of U.S. 17 from Gardens Corner to Jacksonboro in Colleton County.

Following today's tour and a Monday tour of an Anderson project, the seven-member board's project evaluation committee will meet Feb. 13 to make recommendations. A full board meeting likely would follow.

Other projects requesting aid from the Infrastructure Bank include $150 million requests from Horry and Anderson counties and a more than $700 million request from Charleston County to pay for the extension of U.S. 526 to Folly Beach Road and construction of an access road to a new State Ports Authority facility.

While visits in Horry and Charleston will include talks with applicants, today's trip includes only an aerial tour of the U.S. 17 project to try to get all of the coastal projects reviewed within one day, said Debra Rountree, director of the board.

Wilson Elgin, the Transportation Department's project manager on U.S. 17, said he was encouraged that the board will support the project and said a driving tour likely wouldn't give the full picture of the basin that includes the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers.

"The aerial tour may be even better to give them a good idea of what the ACE Basin looks like," he said.

The state's request to the bank board includes a $90 million grant and a $48 million loan to be paid back by the State Transportation Commission from discretionary funds.

Existing money for the U.S. 17 widening include a $10 million allocation from the six-year Federal Highway Bill, $2.4 million in local contributions, $700,000 the state has set aside for intersection improvements in Jacksonboro and $13.3 million to replace the Combahee River Bridge.

The Transportation Department is coordinating permit applications for U.S. 17 with the Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Army Corps of Engineers. Questions on wetlands mitigation and minor project changes have pushed back permit approval to March, Elgin said.

Permits have been approved for the bridge replacement likely to begin in February in advance of the rest of the project, which could begin within three months of securing the permits and funding, Elgin said.