Drivers on Interstate 26 in Berkeley County now have three lanes in each direction between S.C. 27 near Ridgeville and Jedburg Road, ABC News 4 reported Sept. 24.

Construction on the seven-mile stretch, which the S.C. Department of Transportation calls the I-26 Widening & SC 27 Interchange project, officially began in October 2022. State officials said then that the work was initially set to cost $218 million and that $320 million approved by the legislature that June had moved it up an estimated six years, WCSC Live 5 News reported. ABC News 4 described it in September as an estimated $183.8 million project.

The section carried an average of 54,700 vehicles a day in 2025, and SCDOT projects 81,000 a day by 2043, ABC News 4 reported. It passes Exit 189, which SCDOT calls the Volvo interchange, and the project also built a new S.C. 27 bridge at Exit 187, according to the agency.

Crews still had to install final pavement markings, signs and rumble strips, with that work expected to be done before the end of October and requiring some single-lane closures, according to ABC News 4.

Early reviews were mixed. “It’s absolutely an improvement,” Harleyville resident Gregory Glinka told the station. Josh McDonald, who commutes to North Charleston, said his drive had grown longer since the lanes opened. “It shouldn’t take me two hours to get to work,” he said.

When construction began, Rick Todd, president and CEO of the S.C. Trucking Association, said the widening would help freight move faster. “Our transportation distribution and logistics sectors thrive on efficiency,” he said, according to Live 5.

The next stretch is in planning. SCDOT proposes widening about 15 miles of I-26 from just west of Exit 172 at U.S. 15 to just west of Exit 187, in Dorchester and Berkeley counties, and rebuilding the U.S. 15 and S.C. 453 interchanges. It held a public hearing April 28. The handout for that hearing pushed back the schedule SCDOT gave in January 2025: right-of-way purchases are expected to begin in fall 2026 and construction to run from summer 2028 to spring 2033, about five years.

“Widening Interstate (I) 26 to provide three continuous lanes in each direction between Columbia and Charleston is a key priority for SCDOT,” the handout says.