I-85 is only going to get worse

[GMoxley]

If people would stop driving gas guzzling SUV's and drive hybrid cars, we wouldn't have these pollution problems we have throughout this country and the entire world. With gas prices these days, why drive an SUV. "SUV's are big, loud, and on top of one you feel almost invisible." (from the esuvee commercial)

If you buy me one, I'll drive it.

[Greenville]

I acknowledge the fact that SUVs are gas guzzlers, but some people have families and are not comfortable driving a Prius. We all have an obligation to keep the earth clean and limit pollution, but come on. The tiny cars with good gas mileage as well as the hybrid cars are not practical for most people at this point.

Besides, it is not the consumer's fault that alternative fuel sources have not been developed on a respectable scale, nor is it the consumer's fault that there are not more (and better) public transportation options in America. We certainly need to do better as a society, because I am convinced that the pollutants in the air play a role in a variety of health problems.

[ablebody_suzanne]

I thought the whole point of them being located there on 85 was so they would all be gathered together on the "Campus"... for learning purposes for the most part... did I miss something?

[distortedlogic]

I saw a list of traffic counts not too long ago that had parts of i-85 already at like 110,000/day at certain sections. I think around either the Pelham rd exit, or the 385/woodruff rd section.

[mallguy]

I agree strongly with Krazeeboi's comments in particular, as well as a lot of other things in the above posts.

Three reasons I think businesses locate downtown rather than in the suburbs:

1. Perhaps senior executives who determine where offices go live close to downtown, such as near Crescent Avenue;

2. Perhaps downtown locations help employee retention and recruitment; I work in a downtown area and relocated for my job; I would never have considered taking the job if it were in an office park; and

3. Perhaps downtown locations are closer to business partners and clients. In a job with a lot of meetings and client contact, it's important to be near clients and business partners; otherwise a lot of the day can be eaten up in transit times, reducing productivity.

Based on the $54,000 average salary of those South Financial jobs at the I-85 campus, I'd suspect that a lot of those jobs will be back-office jobs (check processing, etc.); those roles would involve relatively little face-to-face contact with non-bank employees and so location isn't especially important. And maybe Carolina First executives live in the eastside and just like suburbia.

[erm1981]

What do you all think about the new hubble light building? Very nice building i think with the Radius on it and the round tower.

[goodbye]

I love it and think it is very prominent along I-85.

[GvilleSC]

I love it and think it is very prominent along I-85.

Extremely prominent! I can't wait to see it finished and see employees coming and going... We can only hope that other things built at Millenium Campus will be as prominent; how amazing would that be just to have 2 more buildings with this kind of exposure to the interstate!?

[gs3]

An article about a proposal to widen 85 to 6 lanes in Cherokee County. This is much needed and long overdue. If this happened, the only 4 lane section of 85 left in SC would be about 19 miles from the main Anderson exit to the Georgia state line.

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...334/1051/NEWS01

[Spartan]

Good! That is by far the worst stretch of 85 to drive on.

[krazeeboi]

That is most definitely needed.

[krazeeboi]

Since this thread was created, we've heard even more announcements about big developments along I-85, but I'm wondering if the infrastructure will be able to keep up with the demand.

Any new thoughts on this issue?

[GvilleSC]

I'd say that nothing out of the ordinary has really developed since before, just what we expected. State officials will realize it when it's too late.

[Spartan]

85 will need to be widened to 6 lanes from Cowpens to the NC line and from Anderson to the GA line before anything else happens with 85. So basicly, we're stuck with whats there for the forseeable future... or until 85 is literally above capacity for 100% of the working day.

[suburban george3]

I-85 is in sad sad shape thru NC, SC, and GA. I travel this road constantly and besides the overload of traffic people insist on driving 80-90 mph. With the current situation of trooper shortages, there is very little enforcement. It seems to I have seen too many accidents on this interstate (including one that happened right in front of me involving 5 cars and 4 tractor trailers, it came close to being my car as well!!!)

I-85 should be 6 lanes minimum in the rural areas between ATL and Ral/Durham. Some rural sections deserve 8 lanes. With projected growth patterns, the DOT's need to get on the ball improving this interstate.

[erm1981]

It was really bad today comming from Greenville tech back to piedmont. Very bad traffic.

[GvilleSC]

According to this article in the Herald-Journal, traffic on I-85 is going to double in the next 20 years.

I think the article paints a rather dire situation for the Upstate. Traffic will double between Greenville and Spartanburg, from 75,000 cars/day to 130,000 cars/day. The current 25 minute trip between the two cities would take 50 minutes in 2025.

I-85 ideally needs to be 5 lanes in each direction... but that would require buying up land on either side of the highway for two additional lanes and redesigning intersections and overpasses, etc, which would be extremely expensive. The article doesn't mention that the highway has the area available ot add one lane (at least it looks that way to me). It also dousnt mention the incredibly long time that it would take to complete. The last widening (adding 1 lane each direction) took how long?

"Widening might not even be possible because of air quality restrictions. The Spartanburg-Greenville area is currently near the legal limit for particulate matter (soot) and ozone in the air. If levels rise too high, any highway expansions would be blocked."

Whats worse is that studies show that a light rail line between the two cities would only draw about 1500 people.

So what do we do? If this isn't a sign to our leaders to start making real changes in the way we operate here, we will grow ourselves into something worse than Atlanta.

One problem is that there is not high demand for traffic between Greenville and Spartanburg because Spartanburg is not a suburb of Greenville. We only net around a 1000 person loss to Greenville County. The light rail effort should be concentrated on Greenville and its suburbs for now. I think Spartanburg should start figuring out where it should go, and generally getting the wheels in motion. Commuter rail may be more practical than light rail, since it would have fewer stops than light rail.

At this point "encouraging" better land use practices may be out of the question. It may be time to start forcing them on Upstate counties, specifically Greenville and Spartanburg. We will become Atlanta folks... its just a matter of time.

[Spartan]

Interesting stats. My guess is thats an average figure. For Spartanburg I would start at the "Highway 101 to Highway 290" section of road. Don't forget that in Spartanburg you have 85 and the parallel Business 85 loop, which helps to split up local traffic and lower those numbers on the new 85. What you can see, though, is that from SC129 west, the numbers are 78k or higher. I'd say that number in that statement was just a ballpark estimate, and probably based on last year's stats (that was posted in March of 06, so they were probably working from Jan of Feb 2006 data).

Also, at the GSP to Brockman-McLimon section you see 76,100. To me, this is the most indicative of Greenville to Spartanburg traffic, since that is the lowest number between Eastern Greenville Co. and Western Spartanburg Co.

[GvilleSC]

Interesting stats. My guess is thats an average figure. For Spartanburg I would start at the "Highway 101 to Highway 290" section of road. Don't forget that in Spartanburg you have 85 and the parallel Business 85 loop, which helps to split up local traffic and lower those numbers on the new 85. What you can see, though, is that from SC129 west, the numbers are 78k or higher. I'd say that number in that statement was just a ballpark estimate, and probably based on last year's stats (that was posted in March of 06, so they were probably working from Jan of Feb 2006 data).

Also, at the GSP to Brockman-McLimon section you see 76,100. To me, this is the most indicative of Greenville to Spartanburg traffic, since that is the lowest number between Eastern Greenville Co. and Western Spartanburg Co.

[Spartan]

I think thats a good range- but I'll be honest, I have no idea what "SC-85" is. All of the roads that intersect with 85 in Spartanburg have state or federal designations. If anyone knows what that is, please share. Its obviously north/northwest of Spartanburg but I'm not sure what road it is.

[GvilleSC]

I think thats a good range- but I'll be honest, I have no idea what "SC-85" is. All of the roads that intersect with 85 in Spartanburg have state or federal designations. If anyone knows what that is, please share. Its obviously north/northwest of Spartanburg but I'm not sure what road it is.

[Spartan]

That means its a state road, but not a state highway. AADT data from DOT usually is based on the state designation, not the proper name, which makes things incredibly complicated when you're looking at a regular map. But as to what S-85 could be is anyone's guess. The only road that I can think of that isnt a state highway is New Cut Rd, but it doesn't have an intersection with the new 85. Oh well.

[Jael]

I think thats a good range- but I'll be honest, I have no idea what "SC-85" is.

[Spartan]

Perhaps. The reason I ruled that one out is because if you look at how the segments are spaced out, they are pretty far apart. 129 to business 85 is very very short, and then the next segment is Chesnee Hwy, which is 221, which is considerably further apart than the others. That is just my thought process though. You could very well be right.

[Jael]

Yeah, I thought about that, too. I would have expected the next checkpoint to be the 26/85 intersection, but it's not even listed. Looks to me like they checked at either end of where Business 85 and I-85 connect (well, sort of - it's close to 221 at the other end) and ignored everything in between.