Showing posts with label Southern Connector. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Southern Connector. Show all posts
Southern Connector turns 10
Brett is pleased to be working with the Southern Connector as this highway in Greenville turns 10 this month. The Connector Association is one of our oldest clients and we have always enjoyed assisting them with their media relations needs.
They will celebrate the anniversary by offering reduced rates for the week of March 14 as well as offering an entire free day from tolls on March 16. More news to come. Get driving.
They will celebrate the anniversary by offering reduced rates for the week of March 14 as well as offering an entire free day from tolls on March 16. More news to come. Get driving.
A credit to the state
The Connector 2000 Association made its case to the Greenville County Legislative Delegation Monday night about restructuring the Southern Connector's bonds.
While the legislators didn't take any action, a case to allow the board, the Department of Transportation and bond holders, appeared to have made some headway. The state Senate needs to pass an amendment that will allow for this to happen, if not the status quo will be maintained.
Richard Few, the Association's chairman, made some great points about why the bonds needs to be restructured including it essentially will allow the state to get paid for maintenance work, it will pay back the bonds that the business community rallied behind more than a decade ago and this is a public road that has help facilitate more than $400 million worth of new roads in the Upstate.
"This will be a credit to the state," Few said.
As part of the push, the entire Connector 2000 board attended the meeting to show the legislators the severity of the situation. Basically, the 16-mile toll road has never met the traffic projections submitted when the highway was passed by the state in the 1990s. The Association had nothing to do with that traffic study, but has been the group tasked with finding a solution.
It has been a busy week as the Greenville News also opined on the situation.
The restructuring will not add any taxes to the state nor will taxpayers have to pay anything. This is simply to give more time for the bonds to be repaid, which in the end helps the state.
While the legislators didn't take any action, a case to allow the board, the Department of Transportation and bond holders, appeared to have made some headway. The state Senate needs to pass an amendment that will allow for this to happen, if not the status quo will be maintained.
Richard Few, the Association's chairman, made some great points about why the bonds needs to be restructured including it essentially will allow the state to get paid for maintenance work, it will pay back the bonds that the business community rallied behind more than a decade ago and this is a public road that has help facilitate more than $400 million worth of new roads in the Upstate.
"This will be a credit to the state," Few said.
As part of the push, the entire Connector 2000 board attended the meeting to show the legislators the severity of the situation. Basically, the 16-mile toll road has never met the traffic projections submitted when the highway was passed by the state in the 1990s. The Association had nothing to do with that traffic study, but has been the group tasked with finding a solution.
It has been a busy week as the Greenville News also opined on the situation.
The restructuring will not add any taxes to the state nor will taxpayers have to pay anything. This is simply to give more time for the bonds to be repaid, which in the end helps the state.
Restructure the debt
Thirty million drivers can't be wrong.
That is how many people have driven the Southern Connector since it opened in March 2001. That is a lot of drivers. That is almost seven times the number of people who live in South Carolina. That is almost double the amount who went to NFL games last year.
The problem is it is not nearly as many as the developers predicted. It's roughly half actually, which is a major reason the Southern Connector is struggling financially. The projections given by InterWest Carolinas, LLC, via Wilbur Smith and Associates to the South Carolina Department of Transportation more than a decade ago were the basis for the bond mechanism created by Lehman Brothers to pay for the road. The goal was for toll fees to pay back the bonds, pay for road maintenance and maintain a reserve fund.
That has not happened, which means the bond payments and the money for road maintenance are past due. That is why Connector 2000 Association, a group of private, volunteer citizens, who manage the road for the state, is asking the Legislature to allow it to restructure the debt. The Connector 2000 Association members are not the developers of the roadway, have never been paid for their work and were not the group that did the traffic study. The Connector 2000 Association is the group looking for a solution.
The restructuring would be for the time frame of the bonds to be repaid. Instead of the agreement between the Association and the bondholders ending in 2051, it would end in 2086. South Carolina citizens would not pay anything under the proposal. In reality, South Carolina citizens benefit from the change because the Association will be able to pay the state for continued road maintenance. The benefit for the investors is they could eventually recoup more of their losses. Many organizations have to restructure bond payments and the Connector 2000 Association is not immune.
The Southern Connector did not happen overnight. County and state planners first envisioned a highway crossing the Southern portion of Greenville in the 1960s. It was discussed for decades and considered vital for the economic growth of the county, but funding was never available.
The state DOT decided to address the issue in the 1990s while also looking at how to fund other long-term road projects including the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, the Conway Bypass near Myrtle Beach and the Bobby Jones Expressway in North Augusta. The DOT asked bidders to respond with creative ideas to build and pay for the road. InterWest Carolinas, which was a group formed specifically for this project, offered the idea of the toll road and the data to support it when responding to the DOT.
The Southern Connector is an important asset for Upstate South Carolina. On its heaviest days, 18,000 vehicles traverse it. On average, there are about 10,000. Restructuring makes sense because it creates a way for the DOT to get its money back and the bondholders to regain some of their funds. Lawmakers should take immediate action.
That is how many people have driven the Southern Connector since it opened in March 2001. That is a lot of drivers. That is almost seven times the number of people who live in South Carolina. That is almost double the amount who went to NFL games last year.
The problem is it is not nearly as many as the developers predicted. It's roughly half actually, which is a major reason the Southern Connector is struggling financially. The projections given by InterWest Carolinas, LLC, via Wilbur Smith and Associates to the South Carolina Department of Transportation more than a decade ago were the basis for the bond mechanism created by Lehman Brothers to pay for the road. The goal was for toll fees to pay back the bonds, pay for road maintenance and maintain a reserve fund.
That has not happened, which means the bond payments and the money for road maintenance are past due. That is why Connector 2000 Association, a group of private, volunteer citizens, who manage the road for the state, is asking the Legislature to allow it to restructure the debt. The Connector 2000 Association members are not the developers of the roadway, have never been paid for their work and were not the group that did the traffic study. The Connector 2000 Association is the group looking for a solution.
The restructuring would be for the time frame of the bonds to be repaid. Instead of the agreement between the Association and the bondholders ending in 2051, it would end in 2086. South Carolina citizens would not pay anything under the proposal. In reality, South Carolina citizens benefit from the change because the Association will be able to pay the state for continued road maintenance. The benefit for the investors is they could eventually recoup more of their losses. Many organizations have to restructure bond payments and the Connector 2000 Association is not immune.
The Southern Connector did not happen overnight. County and state planners first envisioned a highway crossing the Southern portion of Greenville in the 1960s. It was discussed for decades and considered vital for the economic growth of the county, but funding was never available.
The state DOT decided to address the issue in the 1990s while also looking at how to fund other long-term road projects including the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, the Conway Bypass near Myrtle Beach and the Bobby Jones Expressway in North Augusta. The DOT asked bidders to respond with creative ideas to build and pay for the road. InterWest Carolinas, which was a group formed specifically for this project, offered the idea of the toll road and the data to support it when responding to the DOT.
The Southern Connector is an important asset for Upstate South Carolina. On its heaviest days, 18,000 vehicles traverse it. On average, there are about 10,000. Restructuring makes sense because it creates a way for the DOT to get its money back and the bondholders to regain some of their funds. Lawmakers should take immediate action.
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