GETTING ANSWERS: Highway 14

GREER, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Your road submissions let us know we needed to dig into problems with Highway 14, in Greenville County.

This highway leads right to I-85 near GSP International Airport. Drivers told us the road conditions were poor between Johns Road and Gibb Shoals Road

Tina Noe takes that way quite often.

“Those potholes are crazy,” Noe said, “They’ve gotten worse since they were doing all the work on the gateway project. And the traffic here has just gone up and up.”

The state’s Department of Transportation says 24,000 vehicles take this road daily.

Ryan Flowers was one of the drivers who submitted through “Getting Answers.”

“It’s very rough; especially if you’re in the right lane headed South,” Flowers said, “You know there that there’s a lot of patches in the road. Some of those patches are starting to tear up.”

Flowers is talking about the part across from GSP International Airport.

Will Lohnes owns Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, right off the highway. He says his members have to deal with the potholes to get to service.

“It feels like you’re jittering because it’s just constant banging over the potholes,” Lohnes said.

And Lohnes also worries about the safety of the road.

“There’s a number in the community that are 70,” said Lohnes, “And they’re driving. And that makes it more dangerous for them.”

Until you get to the Quik Trip, the holes look like a checkerboard.

“What are we doing? What is happening with the roads that we can’t even take care of our big, highways coming off of the interstate from the airport up to the towns?” Flowers said.

Noe’s eventually had to file a claim for her car.

“We had some damage to a back rim. And we had to submit that through the SCDOT. And it took a while, but they did reimburse it,” Noe said.

The DOT confirms that she and nine others have filed claims for damage.

“I travel here every day. They should make it a priority. I work here. I live here. So, I spend all of my money here. I spend most of my time here,” said Noe, “And If I’m going to encourage people to come here, I want to give them good roads to drive on.”

The SCDOT says the area next to GSP is currently under contract. They’ll start resurfacing at the Spartanburg County line and end past Highway 80. That’s about an eight of a mile of work.

“It would be wonderful if we would be able to get those cleaned up and fixed,” said Lohnes.

It’s all part of the 2022-2023 Pavement Improvement Program. Work will continue past Highway 80 to Hammett Bridge Road. You may see some pedestrian ramp construction, but crews are expected to start later this year or at the beginning of next year with a projected completion time of September 2023.

“We fix it. And they only kind of do half measures. And then, it starts to fall apart again,” Flowers said. “It needs to be done. And it needs to be done right.”

The DOT says Highway 14 is also a part of a larger project that includes three roads. It is last on that list

Submit a roadway here.

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