Nikki Haley took her favorite pair of hooker boots to Myrtle Beach, S.C. this week to express her support for Interstate 73 – an unnecessary transportation boondoggle the Palmetto State doesn’t need (and can’t afford).
“If you build it, she will …”
Oh, never mind. Been there done that …
The case for Interstate 73 is based on “fairy tales,” according to one former state highway official. Real studies have proven that the transportation needs of South Carolina’s Grand Strand can be met for one-tenth the cost of this $2.4 billion boondoggle.
Of course Haley and her fellow “Republicans” don’t want to save taxpayer money – especially not when they can continue bitching and moaning about “crumbling roads and bridges” (while borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars and raising fees on motorists to pay for their repair).
In fact our state’s leaders are already building $100 million interchanges for Interstate 73 – even though the federal government hasn’t approved the project yet.
So much for “fiscal conservatism.”
Haley has been the cheerleader-in-chief for this unnecessary road before – and now she’s touting it once again for her “Myrtle Beach Mafia” supporters (a.k.a. the corrupt leaders of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce).
“We really need an interstate,” Haley said.
No we don’t, governor … we need you and your fellow “conservatives” to start assigning highway dollars based on legitimate needs, not political fantasies.
13 comments
If only we could magically create this interstate out of thin air so they could see how fucking worthless it really would be. Wouldn’t help Myrtle Beach one bit.
Ah, but if we could just poof it into existence for free, that wouldn’t funnel millions upon millions of dollars into various connected contractors’ pockets. I forgot.
Question: Will we allow I-73 to deteriorate to absolute shit like we have with I-95?
Answer: Of course
Where is the “money” coming from?
Occasionally money comes from a special breed of suckers who are often known by ‘Taxpayers’! In fact now that I think about it, this may be the only source of money.
Vanity Fair had a scathing article about MS and MBC. Fitsnews is not picking this and other media articles as newsworthy. What is going on? Is the interview in SA a prelude to new campaign strategy?
Way to go Fits………info boomerang an article on I-73 to send a message to Tim Scott about a bridge over the Wando.
Great deceptive ploy.
We wonder what billboard companies have already “talked” to land owners concerning campaign sign placement for elections to come.
We wonder what land has been zone for gas stations already. We wonder if the homeowners were told what their land would be used for and got appropriate compensation.
Boomerang Domino 401, 404
She is beginning to remind me of Congressman Clyburn!
What a damn looser!
All I need to know is that Nikki Haley is FOR it. I’m already AGAINST IT.
We may be making some slow, small headway in opposition to I-73. As an update to my old post on FitsNews, I did some further research concerning how many current travelers to Myrtle Beach might possibly save some time by using I-73 instead of SC38-US501 that they use today, and applied it to the original study done for NESA that claimed 18,856 tourism-related jobs would be created.
After correcting for the actual time saved and the actual number of cars per year that were tourists and not local commuters, the maximum number of jobs that might result turned out to be less than 1,305. At least no one at Haley’s little “constituent meeting” was quoting those phony numbers.
SCDOT Commissioner Mike Wooten still disputes my analysis, but told me that he would still be for it if the jobs created were only half as many as the NESA study claimed. As I said — small steps.
Instead of fooling around with a new road why don’t we just upgrade Hwy 501? It goes the same place that 73 would, the right of way is already there and all you’d have to do is restrict the access so that you could keep the speeds up.
The road as originally envisioned would have gone to Charleston. Markie Mark Sanford had the law that authorized the road amended changing the destination from “The Holy City” to “Dirty Myrtle”(actually North Dirty Myrtle).
And, the widening of US 521 from Georgetown/Andrews needs to be completed to I-95 in Manning.
US 521 can evacuate the south end of the Grand Strand and serve the Port of Georgetown.
I think I’ve recently read that US 378 widening is continuing from Lake City to Conway, another evacuation route to I-95, back through Turbeville.
Somewhere along the way, 25 years after Hugo, the powers that be have forgotten those smart evacuation route plans and they have morphed into the pure silliness of an “I” for Myrtle Beach.
Is that really smart? Putting all your eggs in one basket only means that next Hugo, the traffic jam will be on I-73.
BTW, do they think that people only get to the Grand Strand from the north end of I-95?
Maybe it will create a job for every fatality on I-26. Which means it will be like creating two jobs. Which means I-26, an interstate that serves all of South Carolina and its residents, should definitely not be widened or otherwise made less dangerous. Keep doing God’s work, Nikki! Sure, Old Testament God is just fine!
I also think that it is worth noting that while I73 may potentially help (already stable-ish) Horry County, it could be the absolute death knell for places like Marion County, which doesn’t need any more bad news…