The Southern Connector Boondoggle

Toll road faces a $200 million loan default

OCTOBER 1, 2009 6:24 a.m. (2)

Click here to view the toll revenue forecast.

Read the notice of default filed in June, 2009.

How much money has the toll road made and spent since 2004?  Continue reading...

 

The view from here

Gridlock on I-85

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.  Continue reading...

 

Update desk: DOT mulls fixes to I-85

"Diverging diamond" formation being considered to alleviate congestion

MAY 5, 2011 10:45 a.m. (0)

One of the solutions being studied by the South Carolina Department of Transportation to ease congestion along a 22-mile stretch of Interstate 85 in Spartanburg and Greenville counties is being used at five sites in the country.

Diverging diamonds temporarily put drivers on the left side of the road at interchanges to eliminate the need for drivers to make left turns in front of oncoming traffic.

“It’s a radical approach,” said Michael Dennis, project engineer with the state DOT.  Continue reading...

 

Cash for roads hits dead end

Greenville and Spartanburg are badly in need of funds to repair roads

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 11:25 a.m. (0)

Decades of low tax zeal and heavy growth have produced an infrastructure maintenance deficit in Spartanburg and Greenville counties, state highway officials said this week.

The two counties combined need about $384 million in state funds and $11 million in federal funds to resurface and maintain state and federal roads.

State money for resurfacing is zero, said Jason Allison, maintenance engineer for the Department of Transportation District 3 which includes Oconee, Pickens, Greenville and Spartanburg counties.  Continue reading...

 

Interstate-85 proposal coming in March

Plan aims to ease congestion from White Horse Road to State 129

JANUARY 26, 2012 12:05 p.m. (0)

A plan to ease congestion along a 22-mile stretch of Interstate 85 in Spartanburg and Greenville counties should be finished by April.

Columbia-based Civil Engineering Consulting Services has been studying options to alleviate congestion from White Horse Road in Greenville County to State 129 in Spartanburg County.

The stretch of interstate is a key transportation artery for tractor trailers supplying some of the Upstate’s largest industrial plants and distribution centers, for Upstate residents working at them and other nearby businesses and for traffic passing through on the way to Atlanta or Charlotte.  Continue reading...

 

Release the hounds

New homes, new families help greyhounds enjoy life after the racetrack

APRIL 26, 2012 11:02 a.m. (22)

“There’s nothing like walking two or three dogs in a hoop skirt and a corset,” says Joanne Johnson.

She would know, having recently returned from a weekend of doing just that at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. She volunteers for The Hounds of East Fairhaven, a group that performs at festivals throughout the Southeast, in full period garb, promoting adoptions for greyhounds as well as other “sighthound” breeds, such as borzoi, whippets and Ibizan hounds.  Continue reading...

 

Thousands drive over substandard bridges daily

Four bridges in Spartanburg and Greenville make state’s Top 20 list

MAY 11, 2012 8:58 a.m. (0)

Four bridges in Greenville and Spartanburg counties – which together carry more than three-quarters of a million vehicles a week – are among the state’s most substandard.

The four bridges – two on Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County and two on U.S. 29 in Greenville County – made the state’s list of top 20 substandard bridges because they don’t meet federal standards for design or structural integrity, according to data compiled by the South Carolina Department of Transportation and AAA Carolinas.  Continue reading...