Roofing company in Bucksport, SC

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — A proposed 28-mile expansion of S.C. 22 through the southern half of Horry County is still in its early stages, but it is already drawing concern from Bucksport residents worried about how the project could reshape their community and affect private property.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lead agency on the project administered by the South Carolina Department of Transportation, held a public input meeting in Bucksport on Monday as it works to narrow potential routes for the highway.

The Corps has reduced 22 potential routes to 14.

Project Manager Ann Eaddy said the meeting was intended to gather feedback on how the remaining alternatives should be evaluated.

“We’re here tonight to get public comments on the screening criteria and the alternatives,” Eaddy said. “Also here tonight to get the public opinion on the tier two screening criteria, which is the impacts to the waters of the US... impacts to farmlands.”

Eaddy said the Corps will consider a range of concerns as it develops the environmental impact statement, including potential relocations and effects on protected areas and natural resources.

“We'll be looking at all the impacts, including impacts to relocations. The potential impacts to the My National Wildlife Refuge, which I know some people have concerns over, impacts to, wetlands and streams and farmlands,” Eaddy said.

Some residents said they came seeking more information as their worries about the expansion grow.

Kenneth Thompson, a farm owner, said he is concerned his property could be affected, pointing to what he said happened to family land during earlier phases of the highway’s development.

“When they built the north leg of 22. They destroyed the farm my wife's mama grew up on. And now the last southern leg, Last route they had, they were gonna destroy the farm my wife grew up on,” Thompson said. “And it's obvious, looking at the property lines, as I told a guy that out of Columbia that the County hired, I can sit here, and watch the rich people's land they have been scouting, and you just throw in the people who actually farms in.”

Thompson said he may sell his property to an established builder, believing that could make it harder for the county to take it over.

Former county council member Harold Phillips also attended the meeting and said Bucksport residents are concerned about what the project could bring.

“Fear of the unknown is the impact is going to have for us, what is going to block us out taxes and, you know, the will build you know, the increase of housing and, you know, those kinds of things, that restriction that's going to put on our community,” Phillips said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still must complete the environmental impact statement. The agency is expected to narrow the 14 potential routes down to three by 2028. The Corps said the anticipated build date is 2030.

Two additional public meetings are scheduled this week at the South Strand Rec Center in Burgess and the county justice center in Conway.