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 US 29 near the Bon Secours Wellness Arena 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. This area is known by locals as the "Golden Strip". 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. The design is similar to many of those built on turnpikes that predated the Interstate System.
History
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 US 29 corridor from Greenville east towards Spartanburg based on the diagram. The portion of I-385 that replaced US 276 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 futureI-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. Prior to 1985, I-385 was only signed as such from downtown Greenville to I-85. The portion of the freeway from US 276 in Mauldin to the southern terminus at I-26 was signed as US 276. When the connecting portion was completed, the entire freeway was signed as I-385. 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 South Carolina Highway 101 to the I-385-I-26 interchange near Clinton, SC in concrete. The closing of a major highway generated controversy. Closing the interstate for construction saved approximately $34 million. Between 2002 and 2012, I-385 was widened from 2 to 3 lanes in each direction from just north of exit 24 near Fountain Inn to just south of Woodruff Rd/SC 146, with the portion between exits 31 and 35 resurfaced in concrete. Beginning in February 2016 and expected to continue through 2020, the I-385/I-85 interchange is being reconstructed to decrease congestion and related accidents.
Exit list
Interstate 385 Business
Interstate 385 Business is an unsigned boulevard grade business spur of I-385 along North Street, between Stone Avenue and Church Street ; continuation along North Street, it becomes SC 183. It also connected to US 123 and SC 183 MLC. Signage previously existed for this spur route, but by 2007 has been removed; appears only in the SCDOT Greenville-Spartanburg Metro Map.
