Interstate 385

Interstate 385 marker

Interstate 385
Golden Strip Freeway
Route information
Maintained by SCDOT
Length: 42.16 mi[1] (67.85 km)
Existed: 1962 – present
Major junctions
South end: I-26 near Clinton
  I-185 near Mauldin
I-85 near Greenville
North end: I-385 Bus. / US 276 in Downtown Greenville
Highway system
SC 381SC 385

Interstate 385 (I-385) is an Interstate Highway located in The Upstate region of South Carolina.

Route description

Highway 49 exit on I-385, four miles before the road ends at I-26.

After exit 42, Interstate 385 turns into a Business Spur and becomes East North Street and later — for northbound motorists only — Beattie Place. The spur promptly ends at US 29 (Church Street) near the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in downtown Greenville.

The explosive economic growth of southern Greenville county is largely attributed to I-385 and its connection to the city of Greenville and the major cities of Atlanta and Charlotte (via I-85). This area is known by locals as the "Golden Strip".

I-385 features a rather unusual rest area in the median strip near Laurens, that serves both directions of traffic. It was completed as part of the original design of the U.S. 276 expressway in 1958, modeled after the type of single median-located rest areas shared by both north and southbound traffic (to save money). The design is similar to many of those built on turnpikes that predated the Interstate System.

History

1955 "Yellow Book" map of Greenville

The general idea — but none of the specifics — of I-385 were present on the 1955 Yellow Book map of the Greenville area. Also of note is that Interstate 85 would have used the US 29 corridor from Greenville east towards Spartanburg based on the diagram.

The portion of I-385 that replaced US 276[2] (from SC 417 in Mauldin to SC 56/I-26 in Clinton) was initially the first phase built of an SC DOT plan that predated the Interstate System to upgrade and bypass existing through routes, the goal of forming a single limited-access highway from Greenville to the port of Charleston via the State Capital of Columbia. This plan was scrapped as soon as the future I-26 was added to the act of Congress that set into motion the Interstate System. As a result, I-26 was one of the first Interstates in the south to open in significant mileage (most in SC between 1959 and 1963).

Prior to 1985, I-385 was only signed as such from downtown Greenville to I-85. The portion of the freeway from US 276 in Mauldin to the southern terminus at I-26 was signed as US 276. When the connecting portion was completed, the entire freeway was signed as I-385.

For seven months ending July 23, 2010, northbound traffic could not use a 15-mile section of I-385 in Laurens County due to a $60.9 million project to pave the portion extending from South Carolina Highway 101 to the I-385-I-26 interchange near Clinton, SC in concrete. The closing of a major highway generated controversy.[3] Closing the interstate for construction saved approximately $34 million.[2]

Between 2002 and 2012, I-385 was widened from 2 to 3 lanes in each direction from just north of exit 24 near Fountain Inn to just south of Woodruff Rd/SC 146 (exit 35), with the portion between exits 31 and 35 resurfaced in concrete.[4]

Exit list

CountyLocationmikmExitDestinationsNotes
LaurensClinton0.000.00 I-26 Spartanburg, NewberrySouthern terminus
2 SC 308 – Ora, Clinton
Laurens5 SC 49 Laurens, Cross Anchor
9 US 221 Laurens, Enoree
Gray Court10Metric Road Gray Court
16 SC 101 Woodruff, Gray Court
19 SC 14 east – Owings, Gray CourtSouth end of SC 14 overlap
Fountain Inn22 SC 14 west Fountain InnNorth end of SC 14 overlap
Greenville23 SC 418 Fountain Inn, Pelzer
24Fairview Street Fountain Inn
Simpsonville26Harrison Bridge Road
27Fairview Road Simpsonville
29Georgia Road Simpsonville
Mauldin30 I-185 north / US 276 north Mauldin, Anderson
31 SC 417 (Laurens Road) MauldinNo southbound exit; southbound exit is via exit 30
33Bridges Road Mauldin
34Butler Rd. Mauldin
35 SC 146 (Woodruff Rd.) Mauldin
Greenville36 I-85 Spartanburg, AndersonSigned as exits 36A (north) and 36B (south) northbound
Single exit 36 southbound; I-85 exits 51B-C
37Roper Mountain Road
39Haywood Road
40 SC 291 (Pleasantburg Dr.)
42 US 276 Travelers Rest, Mauldin
42.1667.85East North StreetContinuation as unsigned I-385 Bus.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

Interstate 385 Business

Interstate 385 Business
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
Length: 0.6 mi[5] (1.0 km)
Existed: 1962–present

Interstate 385 Business (I-385 Bus) is an unsigned boulevard grade business spur of I-385 along North Street, between Stone Avenue (US 276) and Church Street (US 29); continuation along North Street, it becomes SC 183. It also connected to US 123 (Academy Street) and SC 183 MLC (Beattie Place). Signage previously existed for this spur route, but by 2007 has been removed; appears only in the SCDOT Greenville-Spartanburg Metro Map.[6]

References

  1. "Route Log - Auxiliary Routes of the Eisenhower National System Of Interstate and Defense Highways - Table 2". Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (May 2012). "AASHTO Project Profiles: South Carolina Department of Transportation I-385 Rehabilitation Project". Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  3. Cay, Nathaniel (2010-07-25). "I-385 reopened after 7-month closure". Greenville News. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  4. "I-385 widening". South Carolina Department of Transportation. September 9, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  5. Google (May 19, 2013). "Business Spur 385" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  6. Greenville Spartanburg Metro Area (PDF) (Map). South Carolina Department of Transportation. March 19, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2015.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, December 24, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.