Jump-start Interstates

Tolls could foment rapid construction of I-73, I-74

Will Interstate 74 through North Carolina reach the Grand Strand ahead of Interstate 73 through South Carolina? That's possible, given the speed with which Brunswick County, N.C., commissioners' proposal for jump-starting I-74 is catching on.

The commissioners, alarmed that the N.C. Department of Transportation lacks the $600 million needed to complete I-74 east of metro Charlotte, last month petitioned the state to make the highway a toll road. This week, N.C. Rep. Bonner Stiller, R-Oak Island, and N.C. Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Tabor City, agreed to ask a key legislative committee to authorize a study on financing that stretch of the interstate with tolls.

If the N.C. State Transportation Oversight Committee grants the legislators' request, the study would determine how many motorists would pay tolls to use I-74 and whether that revenue would pay for the road in full or in part. The road would more or less parallel N.C. 211, U.S. 17 and Hickman Road through Columbus and Brunswick counties to the N.C.-S.C. state line at Little River. There, it would link up with S.C. 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway), which would become part of I-74. The S.C. Department of Transportation earlier this year pledged to extend the parkway between its present northern terminus at S.C. 9 to the N.C. line.

(Last week, Horry County said it would seek S.C. State Infrastructure Bank money to extend the parkway from S.C. 544, its present southern terminus, to S.C. 707. That leg also would be part of I-74.)

Successful completion of the N.C. feasibility study alone would not ensure that the eastern leg of I-74 becomes a toll road. The N.C. Turnpike Authority, which would sponsor and build the road, plans to conduct a public hearing into the toll-road proposal next spring in Brunswick County. Strong public opposition to tolling could delay the project for decades. Without tolls, I-74 would have to compete for money with other projects statewide over the next 25 years.

South of the state line, Interstate 73 faces similar obstacles. Though Congress has designated $85 million for the project over the next six years and may come up with even more money, the projected cost of the project between the state line at Marlboro County and Myrtle Beach is $2 billion. The bulk of that money will have to be raised in South Carolina. That also could take decades - unless tolls are factored into the financing mix.

If anything, tolls could prove more feasible for I-73 than they would be for I-74. Because the road will go straight to Myrtle Beach, it probably would be more heavily traveled than I-74. Tolls may not be the only answer for jump-starting the highway, but they could be part of the answer.

Grand Strand and Pee Dee local elected officials and legislators should emulate their N.C. counterparts to pressure the state to study whether tolls would work for I-73. If tolls proved feasible and the public accepted them, that project also could be jump-started. How nice it would be if both interstates reached the Grand Strand at the same time - taking our communities from their current grievous transportation deficit to an embarrassment of riches.

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