I-85 widening work closing road by famous Peachoid in SC. Will it still be accessible?

Have no fear. The giant water tower known as the Peachoid in Gaffney will still be accessible from Interstate 85 during highway construction when most of the access road is closed.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation has announced it will close Peachoid Road in Cherokee County beginning Tuesday for two months but the roadside attraction will still be accessible from exit 90.

That is the southern entrance to Peachoid Road; Exit 92 will be closed to all but local traffic, said Hannah Robinson, spokeswoman for the transportation department.

The Peachoid has long been a peculiarity for motorists and others since it was built in 1981, but it took a cameo appearance on the Kevin Spacey series “House of Cards” to bring it notoriety nationwide.

In one episode, Spacey’s character returns to Gaffney after a teenager texts a joke about the tower’s resemblance to a rear end and crashes her car.

The 135-foot tower looked more like that part of the human body before it was painted, but the jokes remain.

Also known as The Peach and The Moon over Gaffney, the water tower design was selected due to Cherokee County’s role in peach farming. Once, it produced more peaches than the entire state of Georgia, which is known as the Peach State.

Despite the decrease in peach farms, Gaffney remains the home of the South Carolina Peach Festival.

Robinson said the detour route around Peachoid Road will go along Chesnee Highway (SC 11) and Whelchel Road. She said Peachoid Road is a frontage to I-85 and a small section needs a retaining wall due to a minor shift in alignment.

The Peachoid was commissioned by the Gaffney Board of Public Works, which in 2018 encircled it with a 6-foot tall chain-link fence to stop people from carving their initials into it and performing other acts of vandalism.