DOT to accept funds for new highway

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The move is being criticized by Gov. Mark Sanford's office and environmentalists, who have long opposed the 9-mile road that officials have estimated could carry a $100 million price tag.

The project, called the Briggs-DeLaine-Pearson Connector, would link the rural communities of Rimini in Clarendon County with Lone Star in Calhoun County using a 3-mile-long bridge over Lake Marion. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, the project’s chief congressional backer, began pushing the project, which some call the Clyburn Connector, in 1998.

"DOT has told us that it's going to cost in excess of $100 million," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said. "That's a lot of money that could go to repair and maintenance."

Meanwhile, DOT Chairman Tee Hooper of Greenville said he would like to talk to Clyburn to see if he would be willing to allow the state to use the money elsewhere.

He said he thinks the money is needed more on other projects in the state, such as the repair of Interstate 95.

"I'll gladly talk to him," Clyburn said.

Clyburn argues that the project will open up the area to economic development and thereby improve the local school system. He said two separate studies during the past four decades have supported building the road and bridge.

Opponents charge the road has dubious value and will spoil the wetlands in the upper area of Lake Marion.

Jane Lareau, land-use director for the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, calls the project the "ultimate boondoggle."

"Every penny they put into this project is a penny that is being wasted," she argued. "We should say no to federal dollars when they don't make sense."

DOT has received $6 million in federal aid for the project thus far and spent $261,000 in state funds, officials said this week.

DOT Commissioner John "Moot" Truluck, whose district covers the project, said he is neither for nor against it. He said he wants more information.

"This additional funding will allow us to come closer to a number as to what we're going to do with that project," he said. "All we're trying to do is gather enough information to make a decision."

Lareau said that doesn't make sense.

"They have enough information to make a decision," she said. "And that information is the road project should not be built. They are running a crisis-deficit in trying to maintain the roads they have. They don't need federal dollars to do studies to find out how much it's going to cost.

"This has nothing to do with whether the road should be built in the first place. And this is precisely what is wrong with this agency. Anybody with enough power can push for a road and that road will get built."

The commissioners' vote allows the agency to proceed with the permitting process, which in turn should give the board more information about the project's total costs, DOT officials said.

Hooper said the state has greater needs. The agency said it has backlogs totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in road construction and maintenance because of a lack of money. DOT hasn't paved any secondary roads in four years.

"I'm sympathetic for his reasons for wanting to do it," Hooper said of Clyburn.

"I respect him and I respect his feelings about the area. I would just hope he would consider utilizing those funds elsewhere in his district. It just doesn't make any sense to spend that much money. I would rather spend $10 million or $20 million helping that area get industry versus $100-some million for a bridge over an environmentally sensitive area."

Truluck said the commissioners have received mixed responses to the project. He said the numbers are about equal from those opposed and those who support it. Some of the negative letters, he said "have come pretty far away."

"I'm at a point where I'm not committed one way or the other," he said. "I'm just trying to gather as much information to make the most intelligent decision I can make based upon the facts available."