COLUMBIA, S.C. —
If you live or work near Clemson Road in Richland County, your daily commute might take a bit longer over the next two months. Transportation officials say they will close a lane on Clemson Road starting on Monday.
“We're doing a utility relocation on Clemson Road. Basically, what's going on is there's a water line that needs to be relocated. And in order for us to do that, we're gonna have to get into the right lane of Clemson Road. So that's the lane that we're closing, and we're gonna have to get under the pavement,” said Hannah Robinson with SCDOT.
The State Department of Transportation is shutting down a single lane on Clemson Road in Northeast Richland County. The closure begins on Monday and will last until December. They are also closing the right closing lane on Hard Scrabble Road leading onto Clemson Road. They want to close the lane and keep people away from the area, so they can relocate a water line.
“SCDOT is going to go ahead and place those cones out so that traffic, so the traffic stays out of that right lane. If your business, if you're trying to get into a business, or one of the roads that are off of the area of Clemson Road that's closed, you will still be able to get in and out of there,” said Robinson.
SCDOT officials say the single lane closure will start at the entrance of Hope Baptist Church and will go down to Brooke Hollow Drive. Although one lane is still open and people are able to enter and exit businesses, one manager says this will affect her store.
“It's gonna impact the store a good bit. Probably. I know most people don't. Most people don't like going over to two notch because of the traffic over there, so they come here instead of going to PetSmart. But now it's gonna be traffic over here,” said Kacy Williams, a manager at Pet Supplies Plus. “Consumer wise, it's going to affect the trucks getting in, because they take hard scrabble. And with the holidays coming up, everyone's going to go down to sand hills, so this lane is going to be backed up, probably all the way down to Walgreens down there.”
SCDOT officials also say that the sidewalks in the area will also be closed. They tell us that this is a populated area, and they want people to be cautious driving on the road.
“We just ask that people slow down and pay attention, because our crews are going to be in those areas, and we want everybody to go home safe at the end of the day,” said Robinson.
The agency tells us that if you can go around the closure or take a different route it may help alleviate traffic.