As the result of a rare closure of interstate highway, a 15-mi rehabilitation of Interstate 385 near Laurens, S.C., is on track to be completed in just eight months—and for two-thirds of its original estimated cost.
Originally constructed as U.S. Route 276, the four-lane divided highway linking Greenville with Interstate 26 was added to the interstate system in the mid-1980s even though it hadn’t been designed to those standards. While aspects such as narrow shoulders didn’t hinder traffic safety, they did complicate the South Carolina Dept. of Transportation’s plans to replace the highway’s deteriorating 1950s-era pavement.