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LATS outlines TIP projects, Bluffton Parkway study and funding options to county committee
Summary
LATS representative Stephanie reviewed the metropolitan planning process, the Transportation Improvement Program, and listed 14 regionally prioritized projects including designs and corridor studies; she also described a Bluffton Parkway corridor study due this summer and funding choices for a Bluffton 5B design placeholder.
Stephanie (LATS representative) gave an overview of the regional planning role of LATS, described the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and reviewed a set of corridor studies and federally programmed projects that affect Beaufort County.
She said LATS programs roughly $8.5 million per year in federal funds for the region and can accumulate funds across years for larger projects. The TIP lists a set of projects that LATS has been programming, including preliminary engineering for intersection work on U.S. 321 and S.C. 46, access-management work on U.S. 17, and corridor work on U.S. 278. Several bridge studies are in the TIP, including a Ladies Island bridge feasibility study and a studied second Hilton Head bridge option; she noted some projects are placeholders that might be reconfigured depending on local decisions.
On Bluffton Parkway she said consultants are doing a corridor study that covers the entire existing corridor; a public meeting was planned for April 9 and the project was due to the policy committee in June (with possible final reporting in August). Regarding an item labeled "5B" for Bluffton Parkway, Stephanie clarified that LATS has approved a study-level allocation (about $1.2 million in federal dollars) that would require a local match and additional local commitment to manage later design or construction phases. "It's not a design. It's a study," she said, adding the county or town would need to manage or fund construction if the project advances beyond the study.
She also noted discretionary grants and programs LATS is pursuing, including carbon-reduction funds for signal retiming and a transportation resilience study (PROTECT program), and confirmed LATS is managing corridor-level studies for SC 315, SC 46, US 278, SC 170 and a Northern Beaufort transit study.
Ending: Stephanie said the TIP will be updated as jurisdictions decide how to proceed on projects that currently rely on sales-tax or other local funding; she will return with finalized schedules as studies complete.
