Horry County Transportation Committee Meeting - January 27, 2026
Horry County Transportation Committee Meeting
On January 27, 2026, the Horry County Transportation Committee met to review RIDE program updates, discuss a public roadway dedication policy survey, approve multiple road dedications, and consider a resolution supporting I-73 naming and an official map amendment for the Carolina Bays Parkway extension. The meeting was chaired by Chairman Dennis DiSabato.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Agenda: The agenda was approved without objection.
- Minutes: No minutes from the previous meeting were available (the committee was re-established).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public signed up to speak, and no oral comments were offered on agenda items.
Discussion Items
RIDE Program Updates (Anna Barnhill, Assistant RIDE Program Manager)
- RIDE 3 Completed Projects:
- Dirt road paving: Group 1 (24.56 miles) and Group 2 (24.46 miles) fully completed – approximately 50 miles total.
- Resurfacing: 33.13 miles of municipal roads and 66.87 miles of county roads finished.
- Major projects ribbon cuttings: Palmetto Pointe Boulevard (Nov 2019), Carolina Forest Boulevard (May 2022), Middle Ridge Avenue Extension (May 2024), Postal Way Extension (Summer 2023).
- US 701 Widening in Loris: substantially complete; punch list items remain.
- Fred Nash Boulevard Extension: fully opened on January 20, 2026; the “hamburger” intersection (not a roundabout) has generated zero complaints to date.
- RIDE 3 Under Construction:
- Group 3 dirt roads: 26.11 miles total; 4.34 miles paved (Hufford Road, New Road, Norris Road, Olin Road).
- SC 9 Widening in Loris: scheduled for completion in Spring 2026.
- US 701 Widening in North Conway: construction contract awarded to Palmetto Corp; construction begins early 2026 with anticipated 2029 completion.
- US 501 Realignment: estimated completion early 2027.
- US 501 Mainline Widening: estimated completion late 2026.
- US Hwy 17 Business Intersections (Garden City): construction began Fall 2025; 40-month duration; currently in utility relocation window.
- Forestbrook Road: clearing and grubbing contract awarded January 2026; activities should begin early 2026.
- RIDE 3 Upcoming: Group 4 dirt road paving in design; Conway Perimeter Road expected late 2026 (may push); Carolina Bays Parkway North Extension in permitting; SELL (SC-22 Extension) in permitting.
- RIDE 3 Revenues: Total actual revenues through FY 2025: $825,435,245.14 versus projected $598,963,221.62 – a variance of +$226,472,023.52.
- RIDE 4:
- River Oaks Drive design awarded to Thomas & Hutton; kickoff occurred.
- SC Hwy 90 & East Cox Ferry in design.
- 38th Avenue North Widening design proposals received; award expected end of January/early February.
- US Hwy 17 Bypass/Robert Grissom Parkway Interchange design award in process.
- Barefoot Landing Bridge Replacement IGA in progress.
- Mass Transit and Bus Maintenance Complex funding agreements approved.
- RIDE 4 Revenues (May–Nov 2025): Actual $80,415,376.29 vs. projected $82,150,316.98 – a deficit of $1,734,940.69. Staff noted projections were aggressive and that the 25-year program would see fluctuations.
- Traffic Counts on Middle Ridge Avenue Extension: ADT ranged from 5,500 to 8,000 in different sections (data collected Jan 22–25, 2026); highest count near Burning Ridge was 8,400 ADT.
Public Roadway Dedication Policy – Survey Results (Brandon Elvis, presented by David Gilreath)
- Purpose: At Councilman Howard’s request, staff surveyed other counties in South Carolina and across the U.S. regarding acceptance of new roads into county maintenance systems.
- South Carolina Findings: Most surveyed counties (Horry, Georgetown, Anderson, Marion, Richland, Charleston, Beaufort, Spartanburg, York, Greenville) maintain unpaved roads and accept new roads. Georgetown and Anderson temporarily do not accept new roads due to resource constraints.
- North Carolina: Unlike South Carolina, North Carolina counties are statutorily prohibited from owning/maintaining roads (since 1931); all public roads are maintained by NCDOT or municipalities. Brunswick County, for example, cannot accept new roads.
- U.S. Counties: All surveyed (e.g., Hays County, TX; Sarasota County, FL; Monterey County, CA) accept new roads and maintain both paved and unpaved roads.
- Staff Recommendation: Continue accepting roads that meet county standards. Gilreath emphasized that roads are a core government function and private maintenance is often inadequate.
- Discussion: Councilman Anderson raised the possibility of encouraging the state legislature to raise the gas tax to better fund road maintenance. The committee agreed to consider a future resolution on the matter.
Resolutions
Acceptance of Roads into Horry County Maintenance System (David Gilreath)
- Chestnut Farms: Joyce Drive, Letha Drive, Joseph Street, Lucy Drive – 0.75 miles. Warranty cash bond provided.
- Hidden Pines Phase 1: Azalea Bloom Avenue, Augusta Green Way, Albatross Way – 0.67 miles. Warranty letter of credit provided.
- Ridgefield Phase 4: Courtina Way, Ridgeford Drive – 0.38 miles. Warranty cash bond.
- Ridgefield Phase 5: Appleridge Drive, Ridgeford Drive – 0.29 miles. Warranty cash bond.
- Ridgefield Phase 6: Appleridge Drive, Fair Ridge Way – 0.30 miles. Warranty cash bond.
- Ridgefield Phase 7: Ridgeford Drive, Fair Ridge Way – 0.33 miles. Warranty cash bond.
- Total: 3.72 miles of road and drainage accepted into the county system. All roads were constructed to Horry County standards and inspected by the Engineering Department. The committee voted unanimously to approve all six resolutions.
Resolution Supporting I-73 and Naming as “President Donald J. Trump Highway” (David Jordan)
- Original Resolution: Supported construction of I-73 in South Carolina and naming the corridor the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.” Noted that a federal permit was issued in 2017 under President Trump, and that Horry County pledged $450 million in RIDE 4 funds for its portion.
- Discussion: Councilman Anderson expressed concern about naming without guaranteed funding. He proposed an amendment to tie the naming to receipt of federal funding during the current (Trump) administration.
- Amendment: Motion to amend the resolution to support naming only if funding is received during President Trump’s term. The amendment was seconded and approved.
- Vote on Amended Resolution: The resolution as amended passed unanimously.
Ordinance
Amendment to Official Map – Carolina Bays Parkway from Highway 707 to Highway 17 Bypass (David Gilreath)
- Purpose: To preserve a 300-foot right-of-way corridor for the future extension of Carolina Bays Parkway (Highway 31) from Highway 707 to Highway 17 Bypass, including the associated interchange. The area is currently largely undeveloped but faces imminent development pressure.
- Discussion: The ordinance will allow the county to protect the corridor now, reducing future acquisition costs. The corridor is also being considered as a potential segment of the Highway 22 extension. The committee voted unanimously to approve the first reading of the ordinance.
Key Outcomes
- RIDE Program Updates: Noted for information; no formal action taken.
- Road Dedication Policy Survey: Reviewed; no action required at this time. Staff will continue to accept roads meeting standards.
- Road Acceptance Resolutions: All six subdivisions (Chestnut Farms, Hidden Pines Ph 1, Ridgefield Ph 4, 5, 6, 7) approved unanimously.
- I-73 Resolution: Approved as amended, requiring federal funding during the Trump administration for the naming to take effect.
- Official Map Amendment: First reading approved; further readings will be required for final adoption.
- Next Meeting: March 24, 2026, at 3:00 PM. The committee will now meet on a bimonthly basis.
- Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at approximately 3:30 PM.
Meeting Transcript
3 o'clock. We can go ahead and get started. I'm going to call today's meeting to order and we'll start off with an invocation if you guys don't mind. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to gather together as members of this community and leaders of this county to discuss the transportation needs of our county, help guide us towards wisdom in the decisions that we make today. And we ask that you please keep everyone safe on all of the methods of transportation throughout the county. In your name we pray. Amen. Alright, thank you. No one signed up for public input today, but if there is anybody here that would like to speak on any of the issues on today's agenda, I'm happy to have them come up. All right. Hearing none, we'll remove we'll move on to the review and approval of the agenda contents. All in favor? Okay, that is approved. There is there were no minutes of the previous meeting because we just re-established this. So can we just dispense with that? Okay. Alright, then we'll move on to a discussion items. And the first one today will be ride program updates by Anna Barnham. Well, she's coming up, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to let you know what we are planning. If you want to do something, otherwise, uh, we would be glad to do that. But what we are going to do today is talk about the ride program as well as one question that Councilman Howard had from the previous INR committee. Now that we are going to bring forward to you uh updates from the engineering department public works, Coast RTA and RJ Worman. Uh some of those will be regular parts of our agenda. There are active projects going on in all of those departments. Uh the Coast RPA and RJ Warman will be more as needed, but they are planning to come uh soon. I would want to let you know that if you want the committee to do something otherwise, that's what we're planning. Okay. So thank you. Anna is our uh assistant ride program manager. Uh it's been with us for about a year, a few years. 10 yeah, 10 months. Oh, and she came from came to us from SE DOT as 17 years or so in building highways and projects, and it's uh been a good ad for our uh efforts here. Congratulations on trading up. Thank you. Welcome to the good guys. Thank you. So what I wanted to do today was uh as a part of the transportation committee was just give you uh an update on what um the ride program is doing as we've turned over a new year, we've been very busy um with ride three and ride four starting out. So um without further ado, uh go ahead, I'm gonna let Tom drive the train. I know you all have seen this plenty of times, but this is just to show you uh ride three and parts of the county that we that are being affected by ride three. There's you know, every part of this uh county is has been touched by the Ride 3 program. We're very proud of that. Um so I wanted to give you kind of a status update of where we are on on Ride 3 funding. Um excuse me, collection stopped April 30th for ride three, but we are still very much um active in getting the projects completed. You can go ahead and do the next slide. So, what's complete? Um the dirt road paving we've completed group one and group two of ride three. Um, about fifty miles of dirt roads have been paved. Uh we've completed the resurfacing um uh both municipal and county resurfacing as a part of that project.
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