South Carolina Accelerates Multi-Billion-Dollar Road Projects to Ease Congestion, Upgrade Aging Highways
South Carolina is embarking on one of its most ambitious infrastructure overhauls in decades, launching a wave of massive road expansion and repair projects aimed at reducing congestion and modernising the state’s aging highway network.
The initiative comes as the state grapples with rapid population growth, which has intensified traffic problems and strained existing infrastructure.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) says the push is being fueled by a major boost in funding, largely thanks to a 12-cent gas tax increase passed in 2017.
The measure has more than doubled the state’s highway construction budget—from $2.7 billion to nearly $7 billion annually—allowing for the repaving of over a quarter of the state’s roads and the launch of several large-scale upgrades.
Among the headline projects is an $825 million plan to widen a key 10-mile stretch of Interstate 95 near the Georgia border to three lanes in each direction, replacing aging bridges over the Savannah River in the process.
In Columbia, the $2.08 billion Carolina Crossroads project is tackling the notoriously congested I-20/I-26/I-126 interchange—dubbed “Malfunction Junction”—by adding new lanes, improving interchanges, and clearing over 170 acres for construction. Officials say the improvements could save commuters more than 100 hours of travel time each year once completed.
Other major works include widening roughly 70 miles of I-26 between Columbia and Charleston and upgrading interchanges along the corridor. Plans to complete the missing segment of I-526 around Charleston were revived earlier this year with $75 million set aside for preliminary work, although funding challenges remain.
The urgency behind these upgrades is underscored by South Carolina’s population boom. The state has grown by about 1.5 million residents over the past 25 years and is expected to surpass six million by 2040. Increased vehicle usage has shifted the public’s main complaint from potholes to gridlock, with traffic congestion now costing drivers an estimated $2.1 billion annually in lost time and fuel.
Looking ahead, SCDOT estimates it will need about $70 billion through 2040 to fully modernise the state’s transportation network. The plan covers everything from new road construction and interstate expansion to bridge replacements, resurfacing, and even public transit and cycling infrastructure.
State officials say the goal is not just to fix what’s broken, but to future-proof South Carolina’s highways for the next generation, ensuring smoother commutes, safer roads, and the capacity to handle the state’s continued growth.
