FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOUTHERN CONNECTOR BREAKS NEW GROUND

Greenville, SC - February 27, 1998 - A high-tech groundbreaking ceremony was held today for the Southern Connector, a 17-mile toll road linking Interstates 85 and 385 in southern Greenville County. Business leaders, elected officials and representatives from the Connector 2000 Association and the state Department of Transportation were n hand at the Palmetto Expo Center to witness a live video remote from the construction site in Moonville, SC. The road is slated for completion in November 2001.

The Southern Connector is being built as a public/private partnership, an innovative financing method that allows businesses and the government to work together to build needed infrastructure without using limited state funds or raising taxes. The construction of the road is paid for through the sale of bonds, which will be repaid with toll revenues. Once the bonds are retired, the operation and ownership of the road is transferred to the state. South Carolina business and community leaders have sought funding for the road for years, citing steadily increasing growth and the need to ease traffic congestion in Upstate South Carolina .

Buck Limehouse, Department of Transportation highway commission chairman, said he has worked toward the building of the road because it will benefit the people of South Carolina while blending limited public funds with private capital to build the road.

"This highway will relieve traffic in southern Greenville County, where recent growth has been explosive," Limehouse said. "It will also open up new sites for development and serve as a link between industrial, commercial and residential areas."

In 1995, the state asked developers to propose creative ways to finance the project. The Interwest Company, which pioneered the public-private partnership concept, presented a proposal to the state that allows businesses and government to work together to build needed infrastructure without using tax dollars.

Richard Few Sr., chairman of the Connector 2000 Association, said the road has been a dream of state and county transportation planners since 1967. "We are thrilled that finally we are able to make those long-held dreams come true. We have long known that for Greenville to grow responsibly, we must build the infrastructure necessary to attract and maintain the business and industry that will carry us into the 21st century."

"This is a win/win proposition for the citizens of Greenville County," said Bob Farris, president of Interwest. "The road will be vital to economic development but will also mean a less congested, safer road for the people who live and work in the area." The highway, the first of its kind in South Carolina, is being built by Interwest Carolina Transportation Group (ICTG), a South Carolina-based team of engineers, builders, contractors and other experts assembled by Interwest Management.