Date Published: February 8, 2007   

House members approve money for proposed port access road

By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press Writer

A road that would let drivers in North Charleston see fewer tractor-trailers on their local streets got a boost Thursday when a House committee approved spending much of the state's budget surplus on building the road.

The committee agreed to spend 80 percent of the state's $171.5 million surplus on building an access road to a new port terminal in North Charleston. The State Ports Authority considers the access road crucial to its expansion at the old Charleston Naval Base. The 1.5-mile road would connect the terminal directly to Interstate 26, bypassing local roads and railroad tracks.

Funding for the road "is essential to keeping the port expansion on track," said Byron Miller, spokesman for the State Ports Authority. "From a practical standpoint, the port expansion can't happen" without the road.

Lawmakers have long said the state should fund the port access road but didn't know where to get the money.

Legislators and business leaders say expanding the Charleston port is critical to the state's economy. The port, which supports 280,000 jobs and 700 companies statewide, recently slipped from second-largest on the East Coast to fourth, surpassed by Norfolk, Va., and nearby Savannah, Ga., Miller said.

The expansion should increase the port's capacity by 50 percent. Construction of the North Charleston terminal will cost about $600 million, but the ports authority is requesting taxpayer money only for the road, Miller said.

The port expansion "benefits the entire state of South Carolina," said Rep. Roland Smith, R-Warrenville.

A resolution approved by the House budget-writing committee would fund half of the road's estimated $277 million price tag with money collected but not spent in the 2005-06 fiscal year. It would be the first of two payments, said House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont.

Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, questioned the project's cost. "It's a mile and a half; $140 million a mile sounds a bit pricey," he said.

Miller said bridge construction through wetlands and over existing roads is expensive, but he expects further review to bring the total cost down.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman said he wants to fund the road's full cost in one year, if the total price tag comes down to "a number the state could live with."

"This year, we do have some extra one-time money. Next year, we may or may not," the Florence Republican said. "I don't know what the economy's going to do, and I don't want to get started funding a road and then next year say we can't finish."

Though the road is meant to keep tractor-trailer traffic from congesting local streets between the port and I-26, it could worsen traffic on the interstate, said Tony Chapman, acting director of the state Transportation Department.

Widening I-26 for six miles near the port access road would cost about $250 million, he said.

The road received another push forward Thursday when the state Department of Health and Environmental Control approved permits. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to make a final decision on a federal permit for the 286-acre terminal in April.

Under the House plan, the rest of the 2005-06 surplus would buy new schools buses ($22.9 million), upgrade airplane hangars at the former Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville to keep Lockheed Martin from relocating ($3 million) and build a water plant for a regional water system serving six counties ($4 million).