FLORENCE, S.C. - Pee Dee leaders want to make
sure water lines, sewers and other infrastructure are built along
with Interstate 73.
The new highway is planned to go through Marlboro, Dillon and
Marion counties, which have double-digit unemployment rates, on its
way to Myrtle Beach.
At a public forum about the potential economic highway broadcast
statewide, Pee Dee leaders said the highway can't bring industry
unless it also brings infrastructure.
"It's going to be an economic lifeline for the counties in the
Pee Dee," said Rep. Doug Jennings ,D-Bennettsville.
Linda Manning Hayes of the Dillon County Development Board said
that when Interstate 95 was built in the 1960s, there was no
infrastructure in place to support industry, so the plants and
factories never came.
"Little did we know that you need to have water and sewage,"
Hayes said. "We just got that in the past few years. Local leaders
must make sure we get the infrastructure in place along the
interchanges in order to bring jobs to the area."
Also at Thursday's forum, Sen. Jim DeMint assured I-73 supporters
South Carolina would not lose $81 million in federal funding for the
highway as lawmakers seek ways to pay for hurricane relief.
In a taped segment, DeMint said he and fellow Republican Sen.
Lindsey Graham only supported a bill that would divert federal
highway money to hurricane relief to point out wasteful
spending.
"We're not going to lose the money for I-73," DeMint said. "But
it was an important gesture."
The forum was the latest in a long series of public events held
during the past two years to discuss I-73 and its potential impact
on the area.
Planners have reconsidered where to put the highway based on what
they have heard at the gatherings throughout northeastern South
Carolina.
Transportation officials working on I-73 has been a change from
the way most highway projects.
"It's been a joy to work on I-73 because there's been so much
public participation," said Patrick Tyndall of the Federal Highway
Administration.
.gif){kind=spacer}
