The end of an era: Hilton Head demolishing former toll office on Cross Island Parkway

Nearly three years after tolls were dropped on Cross Island Parkway, Hilton Head is removing the last remaining relic of a bygone era.

Contractors were given the go-ahead on Tuesday to begin demolishing the island’s former toll office, which housed SCDOT administrative employees for the tolls’ 25 years of operation. Workers were still removing smaller objects in the area as of Friday morning, but the demolition could start “any day now,” according to assistant town manager Shawn Colin.

Crews from Complete Demolition Services, LLC have 30 days to complete the project, which sets an end date around May 23. With no other long-term plans for the property at 4 Marshland Lane, town officials hope to reestablish the site as a green space. They’ll likely add landscaping and “other enhancements” after crews are finished clearing the wreckage, Colin said.

The demolition will not impact traffic on Cross Island Parkway, Colin told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

Built in 1997 to accompany the newly installed toll booths, the office was the place to pay fines or purchase a Palmetto Pass transponder, a prepaid pass that allowed for discounted tolls. The $1.25 fare ended in July 2021, following the expiration of a 20-year, $25.9 million bond that was used to fund the construction of the freeway.

Including new fencing that will be installed around the property, the project will cost the town about $80,000 in total.

Workers have already decommissioned the office’s underground tunnels by filling them with flowable concrete, Colin said. Those passageways connected the building to the toll booths, allowing toll collectors easy access to their stations.

The toll booths were removed in May 2022, accompanying a larger U.S. 278 repaving project that was finished in the fall. SCDOT transferred ownership of the toll office to the Town of Hilton Head in May 2023.

“For 13 or 14 years for me to come to work, I went through the toll plaza at least twice a day, and very soon there will be no remnants of that,” Colin told WTOC 11 . “There will be a lot of people that will have no idea that used to be a toll road.”

The toll plaza on Cross Island Parkway was one of only two toll roads in South Carolina. Now, the state’s sole survivor is the Southern Connector , which connects I-385 to I-85 south of Greenville.

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