South Carolina Highway 30 (SC 30, also known as the James Island Expressway or the James Island Connector) is a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

in Charleston, South Carolina. The freeway travels from SC 171 on James Island to U.S. Route 17 (US 17) in downtown Charleston.

Route description

SC 30 begins at SC 171 on James Island at exit 3. The interchange consists of a half-

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

. From there, the highway runs northeast, and has two interchanges south of the Ashley River crossing. Exit 2 has access to Harbor View Road and exit 1 is for the Herbert U. Fielding Connector ( SC 61). The route is an orphaned segment of

Interstate 526 Interstate 526 (I-526) is a auxiliary route of I-26, providing a partial beltway around Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States. The route serves several purposes, firstly, as a bypass for through traffic on U.S. Route 17 ( ...

(I-526). Approximately separate the eastern terminus of SC 30 from the eastern terminus of I-526's current extent. Mileage markers and exit numbers on both SC 30 and I-526 are based on an eventual merging of the routes: with miles 1 to 3 occurring on SC 30 and miles 10 to 30 used on the current I-526 route.

Robert B. Scarborough Bridge

The bridge across the Ashley River is named the Robert B. Scarborough Bridge, named for a former state legislator and highway commissioner. The bridge is long and cost $124.7 million to build. The bridge also crosses Wappoo Creek, which is a part of the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following t ...

History

The original SC 30 traveled from St. George to Beaufort. In 1926, SC 39 was extended north with SC 4 from Santee to

Summerton Summerton is a town in Clarendon County, South Carolina, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 814. Geography Summerton is in southwestern Clarendon County at (33.605145, -80.352159). Interstate 95 passes just south of the tow ...

on a new route to

Sumter Sumter may refer to: People Given name * Sumter S. Arnim (1904–1990), American dentist * Sumter de Leon Lowry Jr. (1893–1985), United States Army general Surname * Rowendy Sumter (born 1988), Curaçaoan footballer * Shavonda E. Sumter ( ...

, replaced SC 42 north to Bishopville, east with SC 34 to Lydia, then replaced SC 351 north to Hartsville, then northeast on a new route through

Society Hill Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...

to Bennettsville, then replaced SC 38 northeast to the

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

state line at McColl. In 1927, it was truncated to Walterboro, as parts were transferred to US 17 and SC 28 (this segment is now part of US 21). The remainder became part of US 401 in 1933. SC 30 was reused in 1935 as a renumbering of SC 15 from US 221 in Watts Mills to SC 92 near Cross Anchor. In 1956, this became part of an extended SC 49. The current route was proposed as early as the 1960s to provide a second and more direct connection between James Island and downtown Charleston. It opened on September 4, 1993 and provided a route off the island that did not require crossing a drawbridge. The route was studied as a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...

in the 1960s, but it was determined that there was not sufficient traffic demand to fund the route and the bridge entirely by tolls.

Exit list

References

External links