Hate your commute through Columbia’s Malfunction Junction? It may get a lot faster

Improvements coming to Columbia’s Malfunction Junction should reduce the typical rush hour delay on a busy six-mile stretch of I-26 from 16 minutes to two, state transportation officials said.

The average speed between Colonial Life Boulevard and Broad River Road would double during rush hour to 50 mph, they said.

The prediction came Tuesday as more than 250 motorists visited the Columbia Conference Center to look over two final proposals for easing congestion where I-20, I-26 and I-126 meet northwest of downtown Columbia.

“Everybody wants congestion relief,” said Brian Klauk, the project manager. “There will be tremendous benefit.”

The fixes proposed include new freeway-style ramps, wider frontage roads and adding two lanes along six miles of I-26, all designed to handle expected traffic through 2040.

State transportation officials are looking at two options with slightly different designs where I-20 and I-26 meet.

One eliminates the cloverleaf exits and on-ramps there, replacing them with longer ramps for merging traffic. It was rated the best in computer simulations of traffic flow.

The other modifies the cloverleaf with extended ramps. Both feature “the latest components in freeway design,” Klauk said. The fix for the $1.5 billion project will be chosen by March, with the final OK submitted to federal highway officials for review, he said.

Some motorists are content to leave the choice to state road engineers. “Either will do a lot to improve traffic flow,” Betty Black of West Columbia said.

Nearly 134,000 vehicles driven by commuters and cargo haulers travel through Malfunction Junction daily, traffic studies say.

Many changes proposed are designed to separate local traffic from motorists passing through town toward Charleston or Greenville.

Both plans add ramps with multiple instead of single lanes, some elevated up to 50 feet.

The plans also would:

▪  Widen sections of frontage roads from one to two or three lanes for traffic headed to and from downtown Columbia as well as Irmo, Harbison and the St. Andrews area. Planners believe wider frontage roads will cause more motorists to use them for local travel instead of I-26.

▪  Add another lane each way on I-26 from I-126 to Broad River Road near Irmo.

▪ Eliminate the interchange for Bush River Road off I-26, a spot that officials describe as forcing motorists to weave too much among lanes. The nearby Colonial Life Boulevard interchange would be reconfigured to replace it.

The ramps, frontage road improvements and extra I-26 lanes would nearly double the lanes headed in both ways in some areas.

Plans call for work to start in 2019 and take up to seven years to complete, officials say. It’s one of the most complex road improvements state officials have undertaken.

“I’ve seen traffic increase there beyond belief,” said Roger Smith, who has lived in St. Andrews for 31 years. “Whatever is chosen will make life less frantic.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Hate your commute through Columbia’s Malfunction Junction? It may get a lot faster."