The Greenville News reports that by the time the public comment period ended, the Army Corps of Engineers received over a thousand submissions — “including boxes of statements by backers” — about SCDOT’s application for a permit to extend I-73 to the beach, potentially as a toll road. The vigorous debate over the construction proposal pits advocates like Mike Wooten (chairman of the state transportation commission and president of a Myrtle Beach engineering company) against critics (including former state transportation officials Sarah Nuckles and B.K. Jones) who claim there are alternatives to the $2.4 billion project.
