If roads to the Grand Strand become much more crowded, some highway and tourism officials worry vacationers might choose North Carolina beaches instead.

So at their meeting this week, state transportation commissioners reiterated their goal to upgrade some roads to the beaches in Horry and Georgetown counties and build an interstate link to the state's northern coast.

What hasn't been figured out is how to pay for the improvements.

The key road discussed at Thursday's meeting was S.C. 9, which runs from the North Carolina state line in Spartanburg County to North Myrtle Beach.

The highway runs roughly parallel to U.S. 74, which connects Charlotte to Wilmington, N.C., and beaches in southern North Carolina.

About 90 of the 160 or so miles of S.C. 9 between Lancaster and the coast remains two lanes, while North Carolina is widening the final 15 miles of two-lane highway on U.S. 74 between Charlotte and its beaches.

"North Carolina has been on a gradual but consistent course to make it easier to get to their beaches," said Commissioner Bob Harrell Sr., whose district includes the Grand Strand.

Tourism is South Carolina's biggest industry and the state needs to make a commitment to building roads to get people to the beach, Commissioner John Hardee said.

"We're talking about how bad things are right now," he said, speaking of the state's current budget crisis. "But if we start losing tourist money and take that hit, we'll really be in bad shape."

Complicating the issue is Interstate 73, a proposed freeway that would enter the state near Wallace in Chesterfield County and end at the beach somewhere along the Grand Strand.

Transportation engineers estimate it would cost between $1 billion and $2 billion to build a new road for the interstate. They say it would cost an additional $600 million to upgrade S.C. 9 or U.S. 501 to serve as part of I-73.

State highway officials have asked the federal government to give full funding for South Carolina's portion of I-73. That puts the $1 billion project on a federal priority list, making it easier to get money later.

Both projects need to happen, said Dick Elliott, D-Horry, who came to the meeting to lobby for S.C. 9 improvements.

"It would open up a part of the state that has been ignored for years and years," said Elliot, who was met with nods of agreement from several other Pee Dee legislators.

Commissioners agreed to pay $3.75 million for a feasibility study on I-73. The federal government will pay back $3 million of that once the study is finished, said state Transportation Department Director Elizabeth Mabry.

No action was taken on S.C. 9, but Commissioner Bayles Mack promised the board would talk about it soon.

"It's an easy road to do," he said. "We ought to do it."

One stumbling point is money. Revenues from the state's 16-cents-a-gallon gas tax that funds road projects have been flat for years in South Carolina, making it hard to maintain current roads, much less expand them or build new ones, Mabry said.

"We've always been poor," Mabry said of her agency. "And we'll stay poor until something changes."