GETTING ANSWERS: Suber Road

GREER, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greer community brought Suber Road to our attention.

We’re Getting Answers about this road for you.

Suber Road is between North Rutherford Road and South Buncombe Road, in Greenville County. The state breaks it down into North Suber Road, South Suber Road, and East Suber Road. It’s not far from Riverside High School.

The potholes are particularly bad from Light Lamp Road to the intersection of Gibb Shoals Road; especially in front of Eastside River Park.

Susan Mathewes has lived near the road for around 40 years.

“Greenville has a lot of areas that need assistance, but, definitely, Suber Road’s one of the top,” Mathewes said.

Steve Thorne says the holes are why. The state’s Department of Transportation fixed 16 potholes over the past year.

“Suber’s pretty rough. There’s a lot of potholes on Suber,” Thorne said.

It’s a road heavily traveled due to the school and park nearby. Thorne has watched Suber Road grow and change over the years.

“This went from barely traveled to, I don’t know, I’d say 100 to 150 cars within an hour,” said Thorne.

The SCDOT’s count shows 4,000 to 11,000 vehicles see this road on any given day. If you divide 4,000 by 24, that’s roughly 160 cars per hour. Thorne wasn’t far off.

Mathewes picks and chooses when she travels it.

“I don’t come down here on a whim anymore,” Methewes said, “It has to be a serious reason to go down, because it’s so crowded and lots of potholes.”

Methewe’s braved the road to give her dog a day at the park. She describes the drive.

“I have a suburban, so, bumps, vibrations,” said Mathewes, “You wonder if it’s throwing your alignment off.”

The SCDOT says only one vehicle filed a damage claim last year, but Gary Flemmings fears his car could be next.

“Suber Road, to me, it needs to be repaved, or those potholes need to be put together, or whatever you want to say,” Flemmings said, “It needs to be filled up, because it’s getting kind of bad. I don’t want to tear my vehicle up.”

Drivers say the new neighborhoods in the community need good roads to go along with it.

“They don’t care about the roads. I mean, how can you go around building everything around, in this area, and don’t fill the potholes up?” said Flemmings.

The DOT tells us Suber Road is a part of the 2023 Pavement Improvement Program. This includes a portion of South Suber Road from Near Lamp Light Road to Sage Creek Way. It also includes East Suber Road/Pleasant Drive from near River Birch Way to Leona Drive. The contract has a letting date of November 2022. Work could start in the coming months after.

East Suber Road near Hammett Bridge Road was recently improved and still rates fair to good condition. So, it is not a resurfacing candidate. The same goes for South Suber Road from near Town Center Drive to near Lamp Light Road.

Thorne just hopes the pavement will sustain the growth.

“It’s a lot of more traffic—A lot more traffic to a road that was not set up for that traffic,” Thorne said.

The reason North Suber Road looks great is because it has been paved. Work will complete by the end of the week. Pavement markings will follow.

“Everybody around here pays taxes. Fix the roads, man. That’s it. Fix the roads,” Flemmings said.

Submit a roadway here.

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