South Carolina Highway 12 (SC 12) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It serves

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

and areas to its east. It serves as a parallel route to Interstate 20 (I-20) for much of its length.

Route description

The route begins as a four-lane highway, splitting from U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) where it is known as Jarvis Klapman Boulevard. Through West Columbia, the highway has a mix of at-grade intersections (including one at SC 35) and interchanges (with 9th Street and US 378). It crosses the Congaree River on the Jefferson Davis McMahan Bridge headed into downtown Columbia. For a stretch in Columbia, the highway splits into a one way pair separated by a

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...

: Hampton Street and Park Street for eastbound traffic, and Taylor Street and Williams Street for westbound traffic. Continuing east, the route keeps the name Taylor Street. After its intersection with US 1, the road changes its name to Forest Drive as it passes through Forest Acres. After a sharp turn at the unsigned Spur SC 12, the road is known as Percival Road, then Fort Jackson Road. North and east of downtown Columbia, the route runs next to Fort Jackson and parallel to

I-77 Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It traverses diverse terrain, from the mountainous state of West Virginia to the rolling farmlands of North Carolina and Ohio. It largely supplants the ...

then I-20. The route traverses through rural land before reaching its terminus at US 601 at I-20's exit 92.

History

Previous designations

There have been two previous versions of SC 12. The first version ran from the 5th Street Bridge at the Georgia-South Carolina state line near Augusta, Georgia, to Aiken, Leesville, and

Lexington, South Carolina Lexington is the largest town in and the county seat of Lexington County, South Carolina, United States. It is a suburb of the state capital, Columbia. The population was 23,568 at the 2020 Census, and it is the second-largest municipality in th ...

before ending in West Columbia. Today, this route is marked as US 1 from the state line to West Columbia, which was assigned the route in 1927. SC 12 was dropped from the route in 1928, the year afterwards. The second former route of SC 12 was established between 1928 and 1931. The route ran from what is now US 521 between Lancaster and Fort Mill for to the North Carolina state line near Waxhaw, North Carolina, at what was then NC 25. In 1934, North Carolina changed NC 25 to NC 75, and South Carolina renumbered SC 12 to SC 75 four years later, in 1938.

Major intersections

Special routes

West Columbia connector route

South Carolina Highway 12 Connector (SC 12 Conn.) follows 9th Street in West Columbia from U.S. Route 1 (US 1; Meeting Street) to US 378 (Sunset Boulevard). It is long and has an interchange with SC 12 at its midpoint.

Columbia spur route

South Carolina Highway 12 Spur (SC 12 Spur) is a extension of Forest Drive from SC 12 to an interchange with Interstate 77 (I-77) at its exit 12. Past I-77, the road name becomes Strom Thurmond Boulevard and ends at Fort Jackson's Gate 2.

References

External links

*{{commons category inline, South Carolina Highway 12
SC 12 at Virginia Highways' South Carolina Highways Annex
012 Transportation in Lexington County, South Carolina Transportation in Richland County, South Carolina Transportation in Kershaw County, South Carolina