Interstate 385

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
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business South Carolina Highways Interstate U.S. State Scenic ← SC 381 SC 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

County	Location	mi	km	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Laurens	Clinton	0.00	0.00		I-26 – Spartanburg, Newberry	Southern terminus
				2	SC 308 – Ora, Clinton
	Laurens			5	SC 49 – Laurens, Cross Anchor
				9	US 221 – Laurens, Enoree
	Gray Court			10	Metric Road – Gray Court
				16	SC 101 – Woodruff, Gray Court
				19	SC 14 east – Owings, Gray Court	South end of SC 14 overlap
	Fountain Inn			22	SC 14 west – Fountain Inn	North end of SC 14 overlap
Greenville				23	SC 418 – Fountain Inn, Pelzer
				24	Fairview Street – Fountain Inn
	Simpsonville			26	Harrison Bridge Road
				27	Fairview Road – Simpsonville
				29	Georgia Road – Simpsonville
	Mauldin			30	I-185 north / US 276 north – Mauldin, Anderson
				31	SC 417 (Laurens Road) – Mauldin	No southbound exit; southbound exit is via exit 30
				33	Bridges Road – Mauldin
				34	Butler Rd. – Mauldin
				35	SC 146 (Woodruff Rd.) – Mauldin
	Greenville			36	I-85 – Spartanburg, Anderson	Signed as exits 36A (north) and 36B (south) northbound Single exit 36 southbound; I-85 exits 51B-C
				37	Roper Mountain Road
				39	Haywood Road
				40	SC 291 (Pleasantburg Dr.)
				42	US 276 – Travelers Rest, Mauldin
		42.16	67.85		East North Street	Continuation as unsigned I-385 Bus.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

Interstate 385 Business

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

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

• Media related to Interstate 385 at Wikimedia Commons
• Mapmikey's South Carolina Highways Page: I-385

Auxiliary routes of Interstate 85
Alabama 6852 Georgia 185 285 4851 985 South Carolina 185 385 585 Business North Carolina 2852 485 7854 8853 Business Virginia 7852
1Cancelled 2Future 3Proposed 4Unsigned