Where: Carolina Bays Parkway Extension
from US 17 near Hickman Road, Brunswick County to SC Border
Length:
Approx. 4 Miles
Needed:
Construct New Freeway
When: Sometime
after 2015
Under the latest
I-74 routing proposal, first announced by Governor Easley in 2003, where
the interstate would follow the NC 211 corridor from US 74-76 near Bolton
to the US 17 Shallotte Bypass, I-74 would then follow an upgraded US 17
south for about 12 miles until just north of the SC border where it
would jog slightly west and then south on a new highway that would connect
with an extension of the Carolina Bays Parkway (SC 31) (approximated on dotted line
on map above). (1) (To see a map of this proposed routing created
by the NCDOT Statewide Planning Branch for the Strategic Highway Corridors
project, click
HERE). (2))On February 11, 2005 SC and NC
agreed upon a deal whereby North Carolina would build I-73 from the US 74
freeway near Hamlet, NC to the SC border in exchange for SC to finance
building a 5-mile extension of the Carolina Bays Parkway from SC 9 to the
NC border. NCDOT would then build a new 3 to 4 mile freeway from US
17 to the border to tie into SC's extended Parkway, all of which would then
be designated I-74 (or a spur of I-74). (3) (All if this I-74 segment would
be tolled under a recent proposal to the North Carolina Turnpike Authority,
for more see the I-74
Segment 18 Page).
NCDOT worked
on a feasibility study for the Parkway extension in NC, but the money
ran out at the end of 2006 (see below). The feasibility study was given
a number, FS-0303A in the Draft 2007-2013 STIP (4), but was dropped from
the final document. (For a detailed look at the study area, go to NCDOT's
Carolina Bays Parkway Extension (CBPE) Study website: http://www.ncdot.org/doh/preconstruct/tpb/SHC/cs/studies/cbp).
NCDOT and SCDOT held joint public workshops on the Carolina
Bays Parkway connector proposal in Ash, NC and Little River, SC in
February 2004. (5) At a meeting on October 11, 2005 in
Shallotte the public was invited to comment on six alternative corridors
for the CBPE. The response was overwhelmingly negative to most of the proposed
alternatives, four of which would take out the landscaped entrance to the
Brunswick Plantation. Public input was to be used to narrow the choice
to three alternatives by the end of the 2006, though announcement was made
public. When a final alternative is to be chosen, yet construction would
start on this highway, is unknown. Currently there is no money for the project
and the project is not even listed in the NC state transportation plan. (6)
It is also unclear when this highway would be signed as I-74 (or perhaps
an I-74 spur) since its contingent on the upgrading of much of US 74 east
of I-95 and US 17 south of Wilmington to interstate standards, projects
currently either not funded or also not listed on the State Transportation
Improvement Plan. It appears unlikely to happen, however, before 2015 and
it could be a decade or more after that date. A project to build a Rest Area/Welcome
Center for I-74 at the state line is included in the latest 2009-2015 STIP
(Project K-4001), but the project is unfunded. (7)
Sources: 2002 ADC Carolina Road Atlas
(1) WRAL TV. 2003. "Easley Announces Strategic Transportation
Plan" Downloaded from http://www.wral.com/traffic/2180629/detail.html,
May 5, 2003.
(2) NCDOT. 2004. Strategic Highway Corridors. Strategic
Highway Corridors Vision Map-Southeastern NC. Downloaded from http://www.ncdot.org/planning/tpb/SHC/PDF/shc_vision_map_southeast.pdf
(3) Wilson, Zane. 2005. "Carolinas Reach Interstate Deal."
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC). February 12.
(4) NCDOT. 2006. State Transportation Improvement Program, Draft,
2007-2013, Division 3, p. 3-6.
(5) NCDOT. 2004. NCDOT and SCDOT to Hold Workshops
on Proposed Extension of Carolina Bays Parkway in Brunswick County
(Press Release). Feb. 5. Downloaded from http://www.ncdot.org/news/carolinabay02_04.html,
Feb. 15.
(6) Jones, Steve. 2005. "Public Get Personal in Scrutiny of 6 Highway
Routes." The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC). October 12.
(7) NCDOT. June 2008. State Transportation Improvement Program, 2009-2015,
Division 3, p. 3-10.
Segment 19
