SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville Southern Connector breaks ground

SOUTH CAROLINA

Greenville Southern

Connector breaks ground

The Greenville Southern Connector (GSC) is on the go. Bob Farris’ Interwest company, the developer, has its first toll road break ground. Lehman Bros of NYC raised $200m at 5.9% for the so-called 6320 tax-exempt non-profit Connector 2000 Association which will own the project.

Farris says the target opening is Nov 01, but the major uncertainty about how quickly construction will proceed is now land acquisition. The group had a formal ground breaking ceremony Feb 27 following the successful sale of the $200m bonds Feb 11, but serious construction cannot begin until some 140 properties are acquired. The group has the ultimate backing of state power of eminent domain, but Farris says how quickly and at what price the right-of-way can be acquired is the “major unknown.” Most is fringe area open country, but it has major development potential.

Farris said that the project would never have had a chance without strong and continuous support from the state highway commission chairman Buck Limehouse.

The Connector is a 26km, 7-interchange one-third beltway around the southern edge of this prosperous manufacturing city (1m pop) in northern SC located on I-85 between Atlanta GA and Charlotte NC. The Connector connects I-85 to I-385, the highway that runs southeast down the center of the state through Columbia the largest city to Charleston on the Atlantic coast. On the plans for 30 years, the road is part congestion-reliever/part-development road. Tolling is very traditional with tolls to be collected at two mainline and 4 ramp toll plazas.

This is a standalone toll project but the government is financing a 2.5km connection to the toll road — an extension of SC-153 — as part of the project. Construction cost for the project is $127m, a guaranteed maximum price from Thrift Bros Inc a large regional builder. Florence & Hutcheson are the engineers. SCDOT will maintain the road under contract to the association.

A Wilbur Smith traffic and revenue study suggests 13k veh/day at an east mainline plaza and 15k veh/day at the west mainline plaza in the first year of operation. By 2015 tolls would be 19k and 18k. In the first full year of operation after what WSA calls a ramp-up, 2003 revenues should be $10m and in 2015 $21m.

Farris says he thinks a major spinoff value for future highway projects will be a state supreme court case Interwest won last year which says state laws that “subjugate” (or delegate) the right to approve state highway projects to cities or counties are unconstitutional. The case cost Interwest $300k in legal fees but Farris says highway projects have been plagued by state governments allowing lower levels of government to exercise veto powers over projects. He thinks the precedent in the SC case will help other road projects. (Contact Bob Farris, Interwest 202 879 3973)