By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
For anyone who spent time on I-95 during this holiday season, the thought of “when ARE they gonna widen this road?” might have crossed your mind, especially if you were slowed to a stop along the stretch from the Georgia-South Carolina state line to Walterboro.
Well, the answer is … it’s coming.
S.C. Department of Transportation folks, along with a host of political dignitaries, in June announced the award of an $825 million contract to widen the 10-mile stretch of I-95 from the state line to Hardeeville. Their completion goal for the much-discussed project is 2030, but as with any governmental construction project, we’ll see how that schedule plays out.
One thing we know, they’ve already removed the wooded medians which once provided some visual relief.
Plans for widening the other sections of 95 north to the I-26 interchange and then on to the N.C. state line are still “in the works” as they say.
The realization for the initial widening project comes as Hardeeville folks and a bevy of economic development folks, announced plans this past year for much more commercial and residential development at the Exit 8 intersection of U.S. 278 and I-95 including – yep, you remember – a Buc-ee’s, the Texas-sized truck stop which is expanding into the Southeast. And with the Buc-ee’s will come other long-range development plans including a 300-unit apartment complex and a 300,000 square foot manufacturing center for transmission lines with a $134 million investment budget and a promise of 400 high-tech jobs, all to the delight of Jasper County leaders who are already calculating the tax increases.
Not quite as exciting as the I-95 widening but equally important to Beaufortonians was the resolution of a plan to replace the U.S. 278 Hilton Head Island bridge, another project that’s been under heavy debate by local and state leaders for years.
The various parties involved in that project finally came to a major resolution in June when the State Infrastructure Bank (SIB) agreed to finance $120 million of the estimated $312 total cost. There still remains much “grunt work” i.e., finalizing a design, getting various agency approvals but a completion date is tied to the SIB grant of 2030.
In the area of transportation news, Beaufort County leaders are looking at another special transportation tax referendum to put before the voters, probably in November. The 2024 transportation referendum for improvement projects and green space initiatives was defeated by 56-44 percent of the voters, but government leaders know there has to be $$ to pay for the asphalt and concrete.
As always, it will be interesting to watch. Or maybe not.
Ask the downtown Beaufort retailers who watched the city officials manage the “big dig” stormwater drainage improvement project started right before the Christmas season. With a deadline of completion by the end of 2026, those officials tried hard to promote the holiday shopping season, even with a big, old excavator parked in the middle of the downtown district’s main intersection.
Even when the stormwater replacement project is completed, city leaders still must face repairs to the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park they already know are going to take several years.
Yes, lots of dirt-moving going on. Stay tuned.
… and a Hail and Farewell
BEAUFORT — The end of the year always brings reflections on changes and those that are no longer with us.
The list of luminaries, near and far, who have left this earth seems to grow each year. It hardly seems suitable to focus on any one individual when almost each has left a fan base to mourn their passing.
But one individual, Zaw Tun, 62, who left the Beaufort community in his own quiet way, bares reflection because his passage, like his life here in Beaufort was quiet … and largely, unobtrusive.
Zaw’s body was found Dec. 12, underneath the Woods Memorial Bridge, where he reportedly had taken to living, despite efforts by others to help him find shelter. Because, you see, Zaw was one of Beaufort’s homeless citizens who wrestled with his own personal demons.
But what many people didn’t know – those that might have passed him in the streets or in the Waterfront Park – he was considered by many to be the unofficial master of sushi to the area restaurants. Certainly, there were other chefs who made sushi for local menus, but Zaw has been credited for introducing that delicacy to several establishments, before he was unable to work.
Little is known about this quiet man who probably knew more about Beaufort than he could ever tell, in his broken English. He was a native of Burma, and stories vary on how he arrived in the Lowcountry or even when.
But he, like so many we have lost, was a part of Beaufort, at least for those who crossed his path, a part that no longer exists.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. The Rowland, N.C. native’s goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
