GETTING ANSWERS: Bryant Road Follow-Up

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - We gave you answers about Bryant Road last summer, but now, we’re following up to see how the work on the road is coming along.

The road is in the Boiling Springs area between Highway 221, crossing over I-85, and then onto Old Furnace Road. The road’s jurisdiction is split. Part of it is state-maintained and the other part is county-maintained.

The state’s Department of Transportation says their work is pretty much done. The county says they still have work to do.

Cristal Nash says the state side is much better.

“It’s smooth. It’s like driving over butter, now,” said Nash

The other side is smooth like a cactus, according to Thomas Lefko.

“It’s like a roller coaster. You’re bouncing, and bouncing, and bouncing,” Lefko said.

Lefko says he avoids the road when he can.

“I take that road every day—morning and night,” said Lefko, “And, sometimes, I try to go different ways, because [there are] just so many potholes. I’m afraid to hit these holes. And I’m going to have to get an alignment for the car.”

The SCDOT paved from Highway 221 to Business 85. They decked the bridge and re-opened the contract. Nash wants to know when the other side is getting some attention.

“It’s like, one end is getting all the love and the other is getting nothing,” Nash said.

Drivers tell us it’s hard to appreciate the progress, because when you drive from I-85 to Old Furnace Road, there are potholes everywhere.

Lefko says he’s from Staten Island and has also lived in Florida, but Bryant Road takes the cake for the worst road.

“Potholes: you have to drive—it’s like an obstacle course. It’s terrible,” Lefko said.

Some areas look exactly like they did last Summer.

We got some information from Spartanburg County: The asphalt surface is currently in poor condition and certainly justifies resurfacing. The road is only 19 feet wide, has some sight distance issues, and several horizontal challenges, like curves. Instead of just resurfacing the roadway, Spartanburg County plans to improve the corridor. These improvements include resurfacing the road, widening the road to 24 feet, clearing of existing and future ROW to improve sight distance, and also straightening the road in places.

“Somehow, it needs to be none other than just filling potholes with rocks and then going on,” said Nash.

In addition to improvements to Bryant Road, the county has also identified the intersection of Bryant Road and Flatwood Road as needing improvement. The current plan is to construct a roundabout at the noted intersection. They are currently working on engineering/design and construction of the noted roundabout is currently scheduled to begin in 2024.

Over the next 2 to 3 years Spartanburg County is planning to invest over $3.2M in the corridor.

The Bryant Road corridor was identified due to the poor condition of the asphalt surface but also the accident history over the past six years. In that time frame, there has been a total of 45 crashes. Of those eleven were at the intersection of Flatwood/Bryant. And 24 were in a curve just north of Davis Road and Apple Road.

Lefko says whatever work they do, he hopes it competes with the work the SCDOT started.

“There’s a lot of people that drive that road. It would probably save money on tires, front end alignments,” Lefko said.

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