Interstate 385
Golden Strip Freeway
Route information
Maintained by SCDOT
Length:	42.16 mi[1] (67.85 km)
Existed:	1955 (completed 1982) – present
Major junctions
South end:	I-26 near Clinton
	I-185 near Mauldin I-85 near Greenville
North end:	US 276 / I-385 Bus. in Downtown Greenville
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main • Auxiliary • Business South Carolina Highways ← SC 385 SC 389 →

Interstate 385 (I-385) is an Interstate Highway located in The Upstate region of South Carolina. It goes from Clinton, South Carolina at Interstate 26 to Greenville, South Carolina at Laurens Road/U.S. 276 (Exit 42). 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 U.S. 29 (Church Street) near the Bi-Lo Center 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".

Route description [link]

Highway 49 exit on I-385, four miles before the road ends at Interstate 26.

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 [link]

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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 U.S. Route 29 corridor from Greenville east towards Spartanburg based on the diagram.

The portion of I-385 that replaced U.S. 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).^{[citation needed]}

Prior to 1985, I-385 was only signed as such from downtown Greenville to I-85. The portion of the freeway from U.S. 276 in Mauldin to the southern terminus at I-26 was signed as U.S. 276. When the connecting portion was completed, the entire freeway was signed as I-385.^{[citation needed]}

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 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]

Exit list [link]

County	Location	#	Destinations	Notes
Laurens			I-26 east – Columbia	Southern terminus
		2	SC 308 – Ora, Clinton
		5	SC 49 – Laurens, Cross Anchor
		9	US 221 – Laurens, Enoree
		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
		26	Harrison Bridge Road	Southbound exit and entrance
	Simpsonville	27	Fairview Road – Simpsonville
		29	Georgia Road – Simpsonville
		30	I-185 north / US 276 north – Mauldin, Anderson
		31	SC 417 (Laurens Road) – Mauldin	No southbound exit; southbound exit is via exit 30
	Mauldin	33	Bridges Road – Mauldin
		34	Butler Road – Mauldin
		35	SC 146 (Woodruff Rd)
	Greenville	36	I-85 – Spartanburg, Anderson	Signed as exits 36A (north) and 36B (south) northbound Single exit 36 southbound
		37	Roper Mountain Road
		39	Haywood Road
		40	SC 291 (Pleasantburg Dr.)
		42	US 276 – Travelers Rest, Mauldin
			East North Street	Northern terminus

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 385

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