As part of the preparation work necessary to remove the chute on the I-85 widening project, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) will be reopening Exit 83 and subsequently closing portions of Exit 87 in Spartanburg and Cherokee Counties.
Exit 83, Highway 110, will be reopened tonight, Friday, August 27, 2021.
Then on Saturday night, Aug. 28, 2021, SCDOT will close the Exit 87 southbound on-ramp and the Exit 87 northbound off-ramp in Gaffney. The following frontage roads will also be closed in conjunction with the ramp closures: Cannons Campground Road and Webber Road from Green River Road to Sunny Slope Drive. The roads in and around exit 87 are expected to reopened in late October, weather permitting.
SCDOT estimates that the preparatory work is more than 75% complete in order to make ready for the removal of the first five miles of the chute (between mile markers 81 and 86). The contractor is still tracking to be able to remove the first five miles of the chute significantly earlier than the originally projected 90 day (by Oct 17, 2021) timeframe. An exact date for the removal of the chute will be provided as the contractor gets closer to completing the preparatory work.
SCDOT urges motorists to slow down and obey the posted speed limits and use caution when traveling through the work zone.
SCDOT is investing more than $830 Million to modernize and widen I-85 through Spartanburg and Cherokee Counties to serve the more than 20 million vehicles that travel it on an annual basis.
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