The view from here

By Cindy Landrum  

AUGUST 29, 2010 10:51 a.m. (0)

It’s arguably the most important section of Interstate 85 in South Carolina.

A 22-mile stretch from White Horse Road in Greenville County to State 129 in Spartanburg County is a key transportation artery – for tractor trailers supplying some of the Upstate’s biggest industrial plants and distribution centers, for Upstate residents working at them and other businesses located near them and for Atlanta- and Charlotte-bound traffic passing through.

And Upstate residents didn’t need to be told all that traffic – as many as 110,000 vehicles a day between Roper Mountain and Pelham roads – is too much for Interstate 85 to handle.

State transportation officials say adding more lanes is not necessarily the answer.

“Just look at Atlanta,” said Michael Dennis, an engineer with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, of the city where traffic comes to a complete standstill during rush hour despite 14 lanes of concrete. “Twenty years ago, we would have just added another lane. But we don’t think that’s necessarily the best solution.”

And considering it costs between $10 million and $20 million a mile to construct an additional lane of interstate highway in urban areas, it’s too costly, he said.

Transportation officials were in the Upstate seeking ideas from the people who drive Interstate 85 every day.

“We’re not coming to you with solutions. We’re coming to you for ideas,” said Rocque Kneece, of Civil Engineering Consulting Services, the Columbia firm that has been hired by the DOT to come up with an incremental plan to address I-85 traffic concerns until 2035.

Dennis said, “They may not be traffic engineers, but they drive it every day. They see things we may miss because we’ve always done things in a certain way.”

Part of the problem is the stretch of I-85 has one of the highest concentrations of tractor-trailers of any interstate, up to 40 percent of the road’s traffic at peak times. Because of that, delays cost area industries time and money.

Steve Dale, who lives in Simpsonville and works off South Carolina 101 at Duer Carolina Coil, said some of the problems could be solved simply and subtly.

“A lot of this isn’t rocket science,” said Dale, who used to work downtown and around Pelham Road. “I think they can do it cheap and dirty. The real problem in the DOT is they think, ‘This is the way we do things.’”

Dale gave an example using South Carolina 101 and Pelham Roads.

When drivers exit onto 101, there are two signs telling drivers they can go to Greer or Woodruff. Further onto the ramp, there’s an island with four lanes. Signs tell drivers going to Greer to use the left two lanes and drivers going to Woodruff to use the right lanes.

But if a driver gets off on Pelham Road, there’s two lanes of asphalt with no signs. The top of the ramp widens and the arrows painted on the road are hard to see if the sun is in the driver’s eyes, it’s raining or traffic is backed up, he said.

“At 101, they did that all for BMW,” he said. “What about the rest of us? What about 385? They just haven’t kept up with the growth.”

He also suggests staggered work schedules for area businesses.

“I schedule my work hours around all of the traffic issues,” he said.

Jerry Smith, who lives in Stonebrook Farms off Highway 14 near Pelham Road, said a four-lane frontage road could be built from Pelham to at least Highway 290 to keep traffic going to BMW and other plants off the interstate.

Dan McGee, who heads transportation planning for Greenville County, said despite the headaches commuters experience during peak travel times, the time is right to fix the problem.

“Unlike Atlanta, we still have the opportunity to do something about it,” he said.

And it’s critical a fix is found now, he said. Parts of the Upstate could be cited by the Environmental Protection Agency for non-attainment of air quality standards, McGee said. If it does, roads in that area would not be allowed to be widened unless officials can prove the widening would not make air quality worse, McGee said.

Among options being studied are acceleration and deceleration lane improvements, new signage and pavement markings, ramp metering which would not allow vehicles to enter the interstate if it is already backed up, high occupancy vehicle lanes, off-road crash investigation sites, mainline and interchange improvements for problem areas, lighting and visual barriers to reduce rubbernecking.

In addition, businesses may be asked to allow employees to work a flex schedule or stagger start times.

Additional options include finding other transportation modes to reduce the number of vehicles on I-85, Kneece said.

Engineers will analyze the options for cost and benefit, and expect to hold a public meeting around the first of the year. A final report is expected in the spring.

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