COLUMBIA - Myrtle Beach will now spearhead the entire 800-mile Interstate 73 corridor, which is planned to run through six states from S.C. 22 near Aynor to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., at the Canadian border.

On Monday, a founder of the I-73 effort and director of the Bluefield, W.Va.-based I-73/74 Corridor Association, turned over his group's operations to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

Nelson Walker said his board agreed to requests from state Rep. Doug Jennings and chamber President Brad Dean, because he is 76 and ailing and the corridor association has been dormant in recent years.

Dean said he will be the director of the newly-revitalized organization but will hire at least one new staff member to manage day-to-day affairs.

The announcement came at a summit in Columbia on funding I-73. Nothing new was revealed on how the $2 billion, 60-mile S.C. portion of the road will be paid for, but officials said making Myrtle Beach the leader in the six-state effort will give new energy to the drive to find money.

Walker said it was hard to give up his baby for adoption, but "I think it's a good idea" because the highway needs an advocacy group to keep pushing.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the organizers of the summit, said it is important for all six I-73 states to get involved and the revamped corridor association can help.

"Having the headquarters in Myrtle Beach is a recognition that South Carolina is the most organized and the most competent, and it's a compliment to the Myrtle Beach community," Graham said.

He said he intends to call a meeting in Washington early in the new year of the congressional delegations from the six states "to focus on a strategy" for snaring some money for I-73 in the next major highway-funding bill. That would be in 2010, though there is a possibility of getting money before that, Graham said.

He said he expects the corridor association and local supporters from each state would be part of the six-state gathering in Washington.

Walker said the corridor association began in 1991 in Bluefield with the aim of improving U.S. 52, and they went to U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia with their pleas. Byrd then became one of the fathers of I-73 when it was designated in 1991 as one of a group of new interstate highways.

Part of I-73's path follows the corridor of U.S. 52.

No money was designated for the new interstates, so Walker's group became the I-73 Corridor Association and began a series of rallies in the six states and in Washington. One of those was held in Myrtle Beach. Former Myrtle Beach Chamber President Ashby Ward was also active in the association and in trying to drum up money and support for the highway.

Later, I-74 was added as a branch in Virginia and North Carolina. It is planned to come to Brunswick County, N.C., then jog south into Horry County and connect with S.C. 31.

North Carolina is building both I-73 and I-74 and has parts of it open, as does West Virginia. Virginia has a section in the planning stage, but Ohio and Michigan have not acted on the road in recent years.

John Napier, who formerly represented Horry and Georgetown counties in the U.S. House and is a lobbyist for the S.C. Department of Transportation in Washington, said the move for Myrtle Beach to take over the corridor group "thrusts us into the leadership role" on funding the highway and gives supporters a new measure of clout in the nation's capital.

S.C. DOT Director Betty Mabry also praised the move, saying Dean "is just so energetic, so progressive." The DOT can get the road's plans done, but so far has no identified means of funding the state's share, Mabry said.

But supporters still don't know when or if federal money will be available, and if so how much.

That is one reason the DOT is looking for a public-private partnership to build the road, Mabry said. She said about 90 firms picked up the documents from the DOT seeking a partnership, and the agency will start studying them in the summer. "We'll pick the best proposal that we can find ... and we'll go forward with selling it" she said.

Mabry pointed out that S.C. 22, the Conway Bypass and S.C. 31 - also known as the Carolina Bays Parkway - were also public-private partnerships but mainly in the sense that contractors were not told exactly how to do the work. They came up with their own designs, while meeting standards, and decided how to build.

The partnership for I-73 could include companies that would build it for a share of the expected tolls, or those that would pay for the right to have gas stations along the way.