Main Street Connector ~ S.C. Bank grant will cover new roads’ cost

The rapid run-up in property values in Horry County forced local officials to seek $31.2 million more Tuesday to finish the North Myrtle Beach “Main Street Connector.”

Leaders were relieved that the state Infrastructure Bank approved a grant of $31,256,000 to cover cost overruns on the road that is designed to connect North Myrtle Beach with S.C. 31 and S.C. 90.

Without the additional money, work on the connector might have come to a halt, state Department of Transportation Director Betty Mabry told the bank.

The county does not have to match any of the funds or pay them back. The county has paid just less than half the costs of its billion-dollar road-building program that started in 1997 and included S.C. 22, S.C. 31 and expanding S.C. 544 to four lanes.

The latest overruns were mostly from the cost of buying the rights of way for the road in an area where land values have risen sharply.

Source: Zane Wilson, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, SC