Fall is that exciting time when Clemson students return to campus and the Clemson Tigers take the field at Memorial Stadium for seven exciting Saturdays. While many of our residents look forward to these home games, hosting 80,000+ fans and visitors brings heavy traffic both before and after the games. For many years, the Clemson University Athletic Department has partnered with the University Police, South Carolina Highway Patrol (SCHP), and the City of Clemson Police Department to establish a traffic plan to maximize traffic flow before and after each game. Because our roads are not designed to handle the volume of traffic experienced in these relatively short periods of time, adjustments to traffic flow and direction are necessary. We do expect the new construction on Perimeter Rd to alleviate some of the experienced backups but we do not expect a significant change.
Before each game, SCHP monitors the traffic flow. As the inbound traffic increases, SCHP converts all US 93/Old Greenville Hwy to one-way towards the stadium until traffic lightens up. Traffic flow is then returned to normal. City officers will be patrolling downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods on foot and in vehicles looking for road obstructions, disturbances, and other undesired issues that may occur.
As the game draws to a close, SCHP will monitor the volume of fans leaving the stadium to determine when to change all of US 93, Perimeter Rd, and Old Stone Church Rd to one-way traffic outbound from the stadium. At this time, Clemson Police will block College Ave at US 93 and at US 123/Tiger Blvd to one-way traffic northbound. During this time, no one will be allowed to turn onto College Ave from US 123. This keeps a lane open for emergency vehicles to get to the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods quickly. The duration of this closure is dependent on how quickly traffic leaves downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, but the average is about two hours from the conclusion of the game. This allows the numerous pedestrians to safely walk up College Ave to get to their vehicles and moves traffic out of downtown as quickly as possible. Residents can access to College Ave by turning onto Keowee Trail from US 123 during this closure.
We understand this is an inconvenience, but experience shows these adjustments cuts the amount of time required to clear out the traffic in half. Our partnership with several law enforcement agencies is aimed at returning our town back to normal as quickly as possible.
If you experience an issue, please call the police non-emergency number at 864-624-2000.