Interstate 185

Interstate 185 Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System
Maintained by SCDOT
Length:	17.70 mi[1] (28.49 km)
Formed:	1955
South end:	I-385 near Mauldin
Major junctions:	I-85 near Greenville
North end:	US 29 at Henrydale Drive
South Carolina highways < SC 183 SC 187 >

Interstate 185 (I-185) is located in the city of Greenville, South Carolina. The northern portion, which ends just shy of the Greenville city limits, was opened in the 1960s and is cosigned with U.S. 29. The southern portion, which connects the I-85/I-185 interchange (exit 42) with the I-385/U.S. 276 interchange (exit 30), was opened as a toll road in 2001 ($1.00 per passenger vehicle). This extension was dubbed the "Southern Connector" and increased I-185 from three to seventeen miles (27 km) in length.

Southern Connector

The Southern Connector was constructed as a public-private partnership between the South Carolina Department of Transportation and Interwest Carolina Transportation Group, LLC, a development team that included a not-for-profit corporation called Connector 2000 Association, Inc. (C2A).^[2] Under this agreement, C2A operates the toll road under a fifty year license. They were responsible for financing, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining the road during this period and the toll revenue would be used to pay them for these efforts. To finance the project, C2A sold bonds that were tax-exempt under IRS Rule 63-20, which provides that the bonds sold will be exempt if they finance an activity which is "public in nature."^[3][4]

The highway opened in February 2001, nine months ahead of schedule.^[5] By 2007, the Connector 2000 Association was having financial difficulties because ridership on the toll road was not meeting original estimates. In the fall of 2007, they began looking for a concessionaire to take over the operation and financial liability of the toll road.^[6] By early 2008, C2A had received a default notice from their lender^[7] and the SCDOT announced that C2A was more than $5 million behind in its payments for the maintenance and license fees under their agreement.^[8]

Travelers on the Southern Connector can pay using electronic toll collection facilities. South Carolina uses the PalmettoPass,^[9] which can be used on both the Southern Connector and the Cross Island Parkway on Hilton Head Island.

I-185 was planned as part of a continuous route through Greenville on this 1955 map. Note that Interstate 85 would have used the U.S. Route 29 corridor from Greenville east towards Spartanburg.

Exit list

The entire route is in unincorporated Greenville County.

#	Destination	Notes
1A	I-385 north – Greenville	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
1B	SC 417 – Mauldin, Simpsonville	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
2	I-385 south – Columbia	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
3	Neely Ferry Road, Standing Springs Road	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Toll plaza
4	Fork Shoals Road
7A-B	US 25 (Augusta Road) – Greenwood
10	SC 20 (Piedmont Highway)
Toll plaza
12	SC 153 to US 123 – Easley, Clemson
14A-B	I-85 / US 29 south – Spartanburg, Atlanta	South end of US 29 overlap
15	US 25 (White Horse Road) – Travelers Rest	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
16	SC 20 (Grove Road) – Greenville	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Henrydale Avenue US 29 north (Mills Avenue) – Greenville	At-grade intersection
North End of Freeway

References

External links

• SouthernConnector.com
• PalmettoPass.net

v · d · eMajor Highways in Greenville County, SC
Interstates
	Interstate 85		Golden Strip Freeway		Southern Connector
Major U.S. Highways
	Augusta Road | White Horse Road | Poinsett Highway		Mills Avenue | Church Street | Wade Hampton Blouevard		Laurens Road | Stone Avenue | Poinsett Highway | Geer Highway		New Easley Highway | Easley Bridge Road | Academy Street
Major South Carolina State Highways
	Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway		Farrs Bridge Road | Cedar Lane Road		Pleasentburg Drive		Woodruff Road
	Grove Road		Anderson Road		J Verne Smith Parkway		Locust Hill Road

v • d • e Auxiliary routes of Interstate 85 Georgia: 185 · 285 · 485 (former) · 985 — South Carolina: 185 · 385 · 585 — North Carolina: 285 (future) · 485 — North Carolina-Virginia: 785 (future)