High costs, permit delays raise doubts about Mark Clark Expressway's completion Previous story: State to present I-526 project options, published 04/27/09 The beleaguered Interstate 526 project across Johns Island might not be doable, the state transportation secretary said Friday. "I don't think I'll ever live to see it (built)," said Buck Limehouse. It faces "daunting problems," such as the escalating cost to get it done and the absence of money to pay for it. The rising cost is being exacerbated by delays getting permits because of opposition to the road and the lack of agreement on a route or design among the governments that must sign off on any project. The project, first conceived in the 1970s as the final leg in Mark Clark Expressway, would be a semi-loop from the expressway's end at U.S. Highway 17 in West Ashley, across Johns Island and over to the James Island Connector off Folly Road. It languished on the drawing board for years until the State Infrastructure Bank voted to go ahead in 2006. The project immediately ran into heated opposition from environmental groups, some island property owners and the town of James Island. Few now agree on the alternate routes and even the design proposed, and it's muddled in a series of hearings on those alternatives. The S.C. Department of Transportation is scheduled to decide on a preferred route later this year, then complete the latest required environmental impact statement for the project. Because the last set of permits expired amid delays, the state must spend another $15 million to $20 million for new permits out of $99 million that has been granted for the project. The State Infrastructure Bank has promised to make available another $320 million for the highway, but the state is mired in revenue shortfalls. Meanwhile, some have speculated that by the time the project gets going, the cost could easily double. "Who's going to come up with the rest of the money?" Limehouse said. "There are many things out there that say 'stop,' and we're caught right in the middle." Limehouse said the first priority to relieve the traffic and hurricane evacuation concerns that drove the go-ahead ought to be widening the two-lane roads feeding the two Stono River bridges off the barrier island. "We need to get this done first, then try to figure out what's best for the community" as far as the I-526 project, he said. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said the state will come up with the money. "Completing the Mark Clark is a major priority. If it ends up costing more money, I'm certain that the Infrastructure Bank will look at the project and try to figure out a way to pay for it," Harrell said. "If the head of the Highway Department feels that way, he ought to be contacting the legislators who pay for it, and he hasn't done this." Dana Beach, executive director of the Coastal Conservation League, which has mounted strong opposition to the project, said coming up with even the remaining $320 million would "max out" the Infrastructure Bank, created to leverage local and state money to pay for large projects across the state; that's just not financially viable, Beach said. "What this means is Charleston County taxpayers are the only means (left to pay). What we are doing by continuing the fiction that the Mark Clark can be extended is continuing to take off the books an enormous amount of money that could be used for projects that everyone wants to see built," he said. "Let's take a look at the emperor (the project) and admit the emperor has no clothes." Seabrook Island Mayor Frank McNulty, whose residents support the project as a needed evacuation route, said it was the first he heard that the project wasn't financially doable. "My understanding was that the funding was there. People can say a lot of things, whether there's any validity to what they say, I don't know. We're supporting 526," he said, "unless something comes up that changes that support."

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