Work on an Interstate 73 interchange near Dillon will continue for now, though the bond issue to pay for the project was brought into question again Thursday.
South Carolina transportation officials expect to get more money from the federal government, to help the Department of Transportation solve its budget woes. The DOT is looking to get a cash advance next summer that officials hope will help the agency catch up on its bills.
This summer, the agency ran short on cash and had to delay payments to some of its contractors.
That came after the DOT commission gave the go-ahead in April to issue $344 million in bonds, which included $105 million to pay for building an Interstate 73 interchange in Dillon County. Myrtle Beach does not have an interstate connection and Grand Strand tourism officials have been pushing for I-73 for years.
At Thursday's DOT commission meeting in Columbia, Transportation Secretary Robert St. Onge said the agency has been facing a financial hurdle this year. But he told commissioners that the DOT's intent is to clear out bills that are 30 days late and older.
He said a $52 million cash advance from the Federal Highway Administration allowed the agency to catch up.
"We've got a significant backlog that we've got to get down, and while the timing wasn't wonderful, the work's gotten done. The roads have been improving. We've just got a backlog of things going on," St. Onge said.
He said federal highway officials have already agreed to provide the state with another cash advance next summer.
But earlier this month, State Treasurer Curtis Loftis warned that the DOT's cash problems could hurt the state's efforts to sell the bonds to pay for the first stretch of I-73.
And several commissioners want to drop plans for the bond issue that includes funds for the I-73 interchange. A vote to rescind the bonds was defeated in August.
Again on Thursday, the commission defeated a proposal to rescind the bond issue, though in a separate measure, the commission also voted to not send the bond issue to the state's bond review committee until the agency's cash flow improves.
DOT Commission Chairman Danny Isaac of Myrtle Beach told NewsChannel 15 that the separate proposal was a compromise to appease those commissioners who wanted to drop the bond issue entirely.
