CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW)- The Ride Three Sales Tax Commission met Thursday to discuss paving dirt roads and current recommendations for Horry County Council.
At Thursdays meeting, the committee approved a motion to pave 100 miles of dirt roads in the western part of the county. The committee had several options to choose from but approved one that would pave roads between three-quarters and two miles.
Committee members also decided to split the project up into four phases of 25 miles each.
“Those districts with the most dirt roads would get the majority of the 100-miles that they’ve approved. And we will go out and ride all those roads in the next month and just make sure that they should all be on the list,” Steve Gosnell said.
Thursday’s meeting was also a prioritization meeting to re-order the list of projects by complexity. The committee created a rating system for each project from one to three stars with three being the most complex.
The current list places U.S. Highway 501 improvements( along Highway 31 to Highway 544) at the top of the list along with Carolina Forest Boulevard Widening and Palmetto Pointe Boulevard Extension.
“What we basically hope is to be able to start all or mostly all the projects at the same time so that we don’t have to borrow money. the cost initially aren’t very big but when you get to construction that’s when they really start to come in,” Gosnell.
Due to the complexity of the Highway 31 extension to the SC/NC state line, that project was placed last on the current list because of the involvement with environmentalist and other factors that make it challenging.
There’s now seven public meeting scheduled for the community to provide their input. The committee will meet again in April before making a final recommendation to Horry County Council in May.
“This is our best effort but if and you have a better way to get people. our charge from county council was to come up with a method of getting people around the county-tourists and locals around the county more effectively, efficiently and safely,” Chairman Eddie Dyer said.
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