A diverging diamond opens Monday morning in Fort Mill. Here’s how to drive it safely
Come Monday, it’ll be all right. So how exactly will this new Fort Mill interchange work?
The Gold Hill Road bridge over Interstate 77, between Fort Mill and Tega Cay, closes at midnight Friday and will reopen at 5 a.m. Monday. When it does, there will be a new diverging diamond traffic pattern, the Herald previously reported.
It will be the first interchange of its kind in South Carolina.
How the diamond traffic pattern works
The diamond setup will switch sides of the road for traffic. Drivers will swap from the right to left sides, then back again. The aim is to eliminate left turns that take up time and traffic congestion, as vehicles have to wait on gaps in oncoming traffic.
York County and its Pennies for Progress road improvement program released a video to demonstrate how traffic patterns flow through a diverging diamond:
Southbound I-77 turn traffic heading toward Tega Cay, or northbound turns toward Fort Mill, won’t see an impact. Turns in opposite directions off the interstate will go through the double-light diamond.
Bridge closed but ramps open
Both ramps on and off the interstate will remain open during the bridge closure Friday through Sunday. A 3-mile detour during the weekend work will use U.S. 21 Bypass.
About 25,000 vehicles per day travel through the interchange, according to York County.
Interchange construction will continue
Construction on the $14.5 million interchange improvement began two years ago. The project is paid for mainly by the $12 million approved by York County voters on a Pennies referendum. The rest comes from grants.
Further construction on the interchange improvement will continue past Monday. Boggs Construction is under contract to complete the work for the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
All construction should be completed by late October.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 1:23 PM with the headline "A diverging diamond opens Monday morning in Fort Mill. Here’s how to drive it safely."
