The Horry County Council voted Tuesday night to allow some plants to operate a little louder and to run a little later.
Council passed a change in the county's special event permit section of the noise ordinance. The ordinance specifically relates to the county's 17 concrete batch plants. The plants, before Tuesday night's vote, couldn't operate between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Now they can, ideally to work on county road projects at night after peak hours.
According to the South Carolina Department of Transportation, those road project include the Backgate overpass, the Highway 31 extension, and the Aynor overpass. All of those will require a large amount of concrete. Two other projects, the Glenns Bay Road widening and S.C. 707 widening projects will only need a small amount of concrete. There's also a new airport terminal at Myrtle Beach International that crews need to get to after flights have stopped operating for the day.
Council Council passed the first of two options they were to decide on. The passed option includes requiring batch plants to adhere to a certain amount of criteria, like using alternate construction truck routes through neighborhoods, compliance history, where the plant is located, and minimizing noise.
"So they could essentially go through your neighborhood some of the time, and go through my neighborhood some of the time," County Councilman Carl Schwartzkopf said.
Officials say the batch plants that pass the grading system would be allowed to operate at night. Those who fail, won't.
John Anthony lives across street from Ready Mixed Concrete on Big Block Road. "I just want to point out how important it is to have proper sleep. I'm talking about school children, elderly who already have health problems."
For Bobby Steel, who owns Ready Mixed, he says his voice wasn't heard throughout the several month long process.
"I've been here since 1986, where there was nothing," Steel says. "The people who moved here knew I was here when they bought their house. Now the county is saying I can't do my business?"
The county also considered requiring the batch plants to construct 12 foot sound barrier walls, but that option was not accepted.
There is one exception for concrete companies who don't meet that list of requirements. Companies will be allowed to participate in government projects such as state and county construction by being granted a six month special event permit.
