Data released by officials with the Southern Connector shows an increase of nearly six percent in the toll road’s traffic over the first three months of 2014 as compared to the same time last year.
Spanning Greenville County, the 16-mile roadway processed nearly 60,000 more transactions than in the first three months of 2013 with 1,112,235 over the first quarter of the year.
During 2013, the Southern Connector enjoyed an all-time high with $6,963,035 in revenue collected. Currently, the toll road is on pace to better that number, collecting $76,374 more the first quarter of 2014 than the same time last year with $1,621,001 in total.
Bill Carpenter, chairman of the Connector 2000 Association, said the growth of the toll road is a positive sign for transportation in Greenville County.
“We are very optimistic as we head into the summer months that usage will continue to increase,” he said.
In addition, the roadway experienced improvement each month of 2014 when compared to the same time last year.
January saw an increase of 6.8 percent in traffic and a 5.2 percent increase in revenue, equating to 22,954 more transactions and $25,395 more in revenues.
February numbers were affected by a mid-month snowstorm, but traffic grew 1.2 percent (3,905 transactions) and revenue grew 1.3 percent ($6,139).
March numbers saw an 8.4 percent increase in transactions (32,588) and a 7.8 percent increase in revenue ($44,840).
