COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tens of thousands of fans will be heading to Williams-Brice Stadium to cheer on the South Carolina Gamecocks, and of course, with that comes game-day traffic.
“Make sure you get there early. Have a plan in place. Just be patient, because you have to think over 80,000 individuals will travel to Williams-Brice Stadium and the roads are not designed to hold that many people at once,” said Sgt. Tyler Tidwell with the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
As fans prepare to cheer on the Gamecocks, troopers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol are working around the clock to ensure fans and drivers are safe.
“You can have Bluff Road, George Rogers and Shop Road," Tidwell said. "Periodically, we do have to stop all traffic for individuals to get to certain places. One of those examples are the teams. The home team and the away team, we do have to block all traffic to ensure that they can get from their destination into the stadium. We also have to block traffic periodically to let pedestrians cross, and we'll have to stop the pedestrians periodically to let the cars go through. It's definitely a balance, and we try to make sure that it goes as smoothly as possible."
Not only are the Gamecocks taking on Louisiana State University at noon, but thousands of fans will try to get there early to catch a glimpse of ESPN's College GameDay show, which is broadcasting from Gamecock Park.
“State Transport Police officers and troopers will normally get there several hours before the game even begins," Tidwell said. "From there, we'll go over the plan that is in place. We'll have everyone know which traffic control points that they'll be located at."
"An example of one traffic control point could be Bluff Road and I-77," he added. "So, that's an intersection that will have several law enforcement officers there."
The highway patrol reminds fans not to drink and drive to ensure everyone has a safe experience.
“We want everyone to enjoy themselves there, but we do not want people to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle when they've had drugs and their alcohol,” Tidwell said. "There's just too many options nowadays. They can call a friend. They can call the parents, taxi, Uber, Lyft. Just don't get behind the wheel of a vehicle when you know that you're not supposed to drive."
For traffic updates in the area, the state highway patrol recommends following Troop 1 on X, formerly Twitter.