Thank you all!!!  See our Press Release below. Keep those signatures coming. Every name gives us more traction. 

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PRESS RELEASE: Islanders’ petition surpasses 10,000 signatures: “Reject and Rethink SCDOT Plans on the 278 Corridor” 

Hilton Head Island, SC; February 10, 2023.  Today the citizen’s Technical Working Group (TWG) reviewing SCDOT’s proposal for the Route 278 Corridor project announced that its petition to rethink the project had surpassed 10,000 signatures.   

The petition ( https://chng.it/gxXykZBv ) was started when a group of engineers and technical people (TWG – Technical Working Group) and Citizens realized that SCDOT was missing important information and computations that would impact the viability, safety, impacts and cost of the Corridor Project. TWG members stated: “Our goal is not to slow the plan, but to help build one that will meet resident needs and impact constraints. In fact, we expect to be able to speed plan implementation and effectiveness since the problems we have identified can be dealt with early in the game before mistakes are set in concrete. The size of the petition provides good traction to intervene in Federal and State approval processes required for plan implementation.” 

The 278 Corridor project is the largest in the history of Beaufort County and Hilton Head, starting at an estimated $240 million, now growing to $328 million, with no end in sight since many needed parts have not yet been included. For example, SCDOT has only examined the 278 Corridor from Moss Creek to Spanish Wells Road, but our actual traffic flows and problems indicate that they must also include efficient interfaces to local 278 near Gumtree Rd. and the Cross Island Parkway, which have been ignored.

One of the things we are hoping for is that a fresh and independent look at the problem will identify parts that were left out of the current plan, and uncover better solutions that were missed. Fortunately, as a result of the efforts of our petition, the recently elected Hilton Head Town Council is now in the process of engaging such independent expertise. (That critical step has been vigorously blocked for years by Beaufort County Council.)

TWG members plan to assist the Town’s efforts and to continue to intervene with Federal and State authorities in both a supportive or warning role, as needed. “Our goal is to ensure that nothing stands in the way of Hilton Head obtaining a fresh independent look in order to obtain a safe, effective, useful, people and environmentally friendly Corridor plan as rapidly as possible”. The rapid and transparent implementation of the objective study that the new Town Council just unanimously approved will be a huge step forward, especially since it will finally provide data using the proper metrics over the actual scope of our problem. 

Technical Working Group (TWG) 

Diederik Advocaat

Steven Baer

Joseph Kernan

Gray Smith

Richard Wallace

Stephen Woodall