Millions in highway money headed to S.C. beaches

Bumper to bumper traffic backs up for miles Saturday, along U.S. 278 between Bluffton and Hilton Head Island, S.C. After 99 accidents along that stretch of four lane high-way in July, local officials are asking the Department of Transportation to allocate $26.6 million to help widen U.S. 278 to six lanes for about 20 miles from Interstate 95 to the bridges to the island. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton) HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Karen Van Wyngarden has the perfect way to avoid gridlock on her trip to para-dise: She rides all night from Fort Wayne, Ind., to arrive at her oceanside condo shortly after sunrise.

Otherwise, she knows she’ll end up in the traffic jams that last up to two hours on U.S. Highway 278 — the only road onto Hilton Head Island.

‘‘It just gets busier and busier,’’ said Van Wyngarden, soaking up the sunshine Friday at Forest Beach outside her vacation home. ‘‘But it’s the beach. You can’t let a little bit of traffic get you down, can you?’’

Van Wyngarden has been coming to the island along the southeastern edge of South Carolina for decades, and she said the almost daily tie-ups have become a nuisance since she bought her condominium eight years ago.

The transportation bill recently passed by Congress could change all that. It sends $26.6 million to help widen U.S. 278 to six lanes for about 20 miles from Interstate 95 to the bridges that connect the island. The money also will improve intersections where sheriff’s deputies controlling stoplights still couldn’t keep the traffic flowing.

The Beaufort County project wasn’t the only road to the beach getting big bucks.

The transportation bill pro-vides about $81 million for work on Interstate 73, the first interstate connection to South Carolina’s most popular desti-nation, Myrtle Beach. An addi-tional $9 million will help improve an interchange on I-95 near Florence used by many Grand Strand travelers, and $4 million will be spent to build a southern bypass of Conway, about 14 miles inland.

The new roads help tourists get to the ocean and locals get to jobs at hotels, shops and restaurants, and they are vital to keep South Carolina’s nearly $15 billion tourism industry humming. ‘‘There’s no question tourism is important to South Carolina and we have to make sure people can get there and want to come back,’’ Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department spokesman Mari-on Edmonds said. While traffic isn’t bad enough to keep most visitors away, it does leave some with a bad impression.

‘‘You definitely get people a little more chapped when you get there much later than they should be. It doesn’t start their vacation off on the right foot if they are waiting on 278 for two hours,’’ said Todd Brooks, pres-ident of Island Getaway Rentals.

It appears the traffic tie-ups haven’t put much of a dent in the area’s $1.5 billion tourism business. Brooks said he hasn’t heard of any guests at his 500 rental properties refusing to come back because of the traf-fic, but he has had to keep his rental office open late on Satur-days to help people stuck in traffic.

Saturday is known locally as ‘‘check-in, check-out’’ day and brings traffic so bad, some locals won’t even venture out. A good portion of Hilton Head Island’s accommodations are condominium and home rentals and nearly all of those run Sat-urday to Saturday.

Some have suggested stag-gering check-in days, but Brooks said many visitors would likely have to take more than a week’s vacation to fit into a different schedule.

‘‘Nobody wants to make the first step to do it because everybody is so entrenched on that Saturday to Saturday stay,’’ Brooks said. Some local leaders hope widening U.S. 278 has the same effect as the toll road that opened about 10 years ago. Back then, the worst traffic was on Hilton Head Island as drivers crept through a series of stoplights along a major commercial thorough-fare. Now, the Cross Island Parkway quickly shuttles peo-ple to the traffic circle at the heart of the island, pushing the worst of the congestion back to the mainland.

That means it affects locals more.

Beaufort County Council Chairman Weston Newton cringes when he sees an ambu-lance or police car, sirens blar-ing, driving for miles down the highway’s grassy median because of massive backups.

Just last month, authorities reported 99 wrecks in the first 10 miles or so of U.S. 278 lead-ing away from Hilton Head Island, Newton said. Hurri-canes present even more prob-lems. Authorities estimate it would take 26 hours to evacu-ate the area if a major storm threatened.

‘‘The current widening proj-ect that is underway is one more step in the right direc-tion, but we clearly need alter-native access all the way from the interstate to the island,’’ Newton said.

That’s what bothers Art Paton, a retiree who fought traffic in New Jersey and Atlanta before moving to Sun City in nearby Bluffton eight years ago, a massive retire-ment community off U.S. 278.