The South Carolina Department of Transportation is on-schedule to complete the shift of traffic out of the first 5 miles of the chute on the I-85 widening project. Weather permitting, the shift will happen overnight on the evening of Sept 15, 2021. This is just over 30 days ahead of the original schedule. The contractor is expected to finish the shifting of the barrier wall and is on-tap to work on restriping the new outside southbound lanes tonight in order to ready for the shift to be completed tomorrow night (the 15th). The first 5 miles of the chute is between mile markers 81 and 86.
Once the first five miles of the chute is removed, the contractor will immediately begin to focus his efforts on the work necessary to remove the second 5 miles of the chute between mile markers 86 and 91. There is approximately 90 days of prep work that needs to be completed before the second 5 miles of the chute can be eliminated. It is expected that the second 5 miles of the chute will be removed before the end of the calendar year.
“We want to thank the contractor for getting this critical work done ahead of schedule and we look forward to his continued commitment to expeditiously removing the remaining portions of the chute. We also want to thank the motoring public for slowing down and being more cautious through the work zone. We have seen speeds drop by nearly 10 mph over the past few months which is helpful in our collective efforts to improve safety in this complex I-85 work zone. We continue to urge motorists to slow down, pay attention and drive carefully while we work to complete the widening work and other improvements to this vital corridor through the Upstate,” said Secretary of Transportation Christy A. Hall.
