Horry County businesses shut down by interchange project

A sign for the interchange project slated to begin next fall sits on bypass 17.

By: Aisha Khan | News13
Published: November 24, 2009

A major road project expected to start next fall already has shut down some long-standing businesses along S.C. 707 and U.S. 17 Bypass.

One of those businesses is the Subway restaurant that shut down just this past weekend.

The project is part of Horry County’s “Riding on a Penny” sales tax passed in May 2007. It’s expected to generate $100 million that will pay for a new interchange.

In addition to Subway, the Jiffy Lube that was located right on S.C. 707 and the KFC restaurant on U.S. 17 Bypass closed for business just a few months ago

“I don’t think we are going to close our doors here, but it’s definitely going to impact the business during the three years of the project,” said Richard Ward, owner of Car Depot near U.S. 17 Bypass where part of the construction will take place.

”Our foot traffic will definitely be cut down and it’ll be a big mess and just a disaster to pull up in front of our office,” Ward said. “The state is expected to take at least a third of my land.”

County leaders said plans to give the busy intersection an overhaul will help alleviate delays that back up traffic on the heavily traveled roads. They said it mostly will ease traffic coming from the north side of U.S. 17 Bypass that turns onto Farrow Parkway going toward Market Common.

“I think they were at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Ward said of the three businesses that shut down, “and as far as being in the area where the construction is going on, they are just victims of progress.”

Mike Boday, general manager of Northgate Tire and Muffler, said he welcomes the much-needed change but, like his surviving neighbor businesses, he’s concerned about how the construction work will inconvenience his customers.

“As I understand it, they’re going to do the overpass and Macklen Road simultaneously … doing both together … so I don’t know where all the traffic is going to go, Boday said. “People are just going to avoid the area. We have a lot of long-time customers and it’s just going be tough for people to get in here and a big concern of ours is what’s going to happen to all the existing businesses.”

Mike Barbee, a S.C. Department of Transportation program manager, said the CVS, Super 8 and Cici’s Pizza buildings won’t be impacted by the construction so far.

SCDOT is in negotiations with the Kangaroo gas station that sits on S.C. 707, however, Barbee said. The gas station won’t be able to operate once the construction begins next fall, he said.