SCDOT Announces Plan to Deal with I-26 Death Zone

Improving the safety of I-26 through Berkeley County is the top priority for SC Department of Transportation officials, and safety issues on the stretch of the highway that runs through Dorchester County comes in at the number 3 spot in the department's top 10 list for interstate safety improvements.

On Friday SCDOT announced a $5 million plan to address those safety concerns along a 29-mile stretch of I-26 from mile marker 170, just east of I-95, and mile marker 199 outside of Summerville. That corridor is also known as the I-26 "Death Zone" because of the high number of fatalities that occur along the route.

SCDOT engineers have been studying the problems along this portion of I-26 since at least 2011.

The plan calls for clearing all of the trees out of the median from mile marker 170 to mile marker 199 and installing the cable rail system in the center of the medians. SCDOT will also be increasing the "clear zone distance" between the edge fo the roadbed and the tree line from the current 25 feet to a width of 46 feet. The Department notes that some of the tree clearing activity will require environmental permits.

Increasing the "clear zone distance" and clearing the medians will also prepare the corridor for future lane expansions, according to the SCDOT statement.

The speed limit through the "Death Zone" is 70 mph, and approximately 32,433 cars travel the corridor each day, according to DOT. Between January 2007 and November 2011 1,934 crashes were recorded along that stretch of highway, resulting in 44 fatalities and 709 injuries. Approximately 50 percent of those crashes were "run-off-the-road" wrecks.