HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) - After more than five years of debate, discussions and public hearings, the 278 of William Hilton Parkway corridor project is one step closer to a reality. The agreement between Beaufort County and the Town of Hilton Head Island was officially signed earlier this month. It came after months of meetings and back and forth between the two sides about money and what the project should look like. They were able to finally come together just days before the March 31 deadline from the State Infrastructure Board. The proposal is $296 million, over $120 million smaller than the original plan. That change happened after the Transportation Sales Tax referendum failed at the polls back in November. Leaving a major funding source empty. Now the State Infrastructure Bank has to approve the new, reduced plan. That's something State Senator Tom Davis (District 46) believes should happen soon. "There's frustration that Beaufort County doesn't have the money to come up with to do the whole project," explains Davis. "But beyond all that frustration, I do think we have a compelling argument to make that infrastructure back money should be fully allocated the hole hundred 20 million for this eastbound span." The new resolution details what changes are coming. Demolition of the existing eastbound bridge over Mackay Creek. That bridge was deemed "failing" by the state and was designated for replacement. Construction of a new bridge extending from the mainland to Jenkins Island. That will be a 3 lane bridge without a multi-use pathway. It will be wide enough to accomodate temporary four lane use in the future if the westbound bridge needs to be replaced. There are connectors planned to Hog Island and two-way access to and from Pinckney Island. Retention and Improvement of Windmill Harbor traffic signal. Replace and relocate the 24" pipeline that runs parallel to the current bridge Request that SCDOT lowers the speed limit of the William Hilton Parkway to 40 mph. What isn't included is any replacement or improvements to the westbound bridge spans, which were "not" considered structurally compromised. Those will stay as two lanes off the Island. "Right now, we're just going to focus on the new three lane eastbound span, taking it from Moss Creek over to Pinckney all the way to Windmill Harbor. And that pretty much exhausts the $300 million we have on hand," says Davis. "The thing that's most critical is the first span of the eastbound from Moss Creek to Pinckney Island, that will be replaced. There will be a new three lane span continuing on eastbound parallel to the existing three lane span." Even if the $120 million is approved by the State Infrastructure Bank (SIB), another $180 million is still needed to finish the project. "There is about $80 million from the 2018 penny sales tax," says Davis. "And then Beaufort County has supplemented that by about, $10 million, so that's 90 there. And then the balance of about $90 million to get you $300. That $90 million is coming from the DOT. They've gone ahead and kicked in that amount." Davis says while the focus and money are now headed to the bridge, he doesn't want Hilton Head town leaders to lose focus on the larger goal, and bigger plan. "We don't have sufficient funds at this point to do what I like to call the "on-island improvements" from Windmill Harbor all the way to the Cross Island Parkway," says Davis. "Making sure that the impacts on the study community are mitigated. Make sure you got a free flow of traffic on to the Cross Island Parkway." "What I've been encouraging the Town of Hilton Head officials to do is develop your masterplan for that, put all your efforts now into looking at what the long-term piece looks like. What is an ideal situation is," says Davis. "There's a lot of work to do with the on-Island piece, and that really is the most contentious piece about, you know, how does it look, how does it feel, what impact does it have on Stony? Do you want to have a free flow of traffic down to the south end on the Cross Island? Those are all outstanding issues that, again, I've encouraged town and Hilton head officials to focus on and figure out what it is they want, and then I'll be of assistance to put the financing in place to make that happen." "It's probably going to involve county funds, city funds, state funds, federal funds. I mean, there may be multiple sources, but what I've told them at this point is don't focus all the dollars, focus on what you want to have happen on island and then let's figure out how we can pay for it. " Davis met with the Chairman of the SIB, the SC Secretary of Transportation and Beaufort County representatives. He hopes the SIB will hold a hearing by the end of April to approve their $120 million in funding. But residents shouldn't hold their breath waiting for construction to happen. "It just takes that long to finalize plans with the Federal Highway Administration to get a detailed set of engineering drawings and submit those out on a design build basis to get the contracts back," says Davis. "To make the award, to have the contractor go ahead and set up a construction schedule. Once those plans are approved; they can finalize the engineering drawings. And then once those engineering drawings are finalized, they can let it out to bid to companies." "It's going to be a design build concept," says Davis. "Which awards points to bidders who can solve the problem on the eastbound lane access to Pinckney Island. The new lane, eastbound lane going from Windmill Harbor doesn't have an off ramp on to Pinckney Island, but it does now. It has you continuing on to win the harbor and then doubling back in order to get the Pinckney Island. I've indicated that that is not acceptable. And what Secretary Powell has said he will do is your design. The bids that are submitted out there, an award points to responding bidders on solving that eastbound access problem to Pinckney Island. So, he feels very confident in the ability of those respondents to figure out how to engineer the project and to get that eastbound access to that." ...read more read less