I-85 also passes near Auburn, Opelika, Valley, and Lanett before crossing the Chattahoochee River into Georgia.

In Georgia, I-85 (unsigned State Route 403 [SR 403]) bypasses West Point before coming into the LaGrange area.

North of Atlanta, I-985 provides a link to Gainesville before I-85 continues through northeastern Georgia and then crosses into South Carolina.

Its original route is now signed as I-85 Business (I-85 Bus) and was approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on April 22, 1995.

Much of the terrain between Spartanburg and the North Carolina border is rural in nature but congested to the state line due to its location near Charlotte.

North of Charlotte, the highway passes near Concord, Salisbury, Lexington, and High Point before reaching Greensboro.

I-85 then joins I-40 east of downtown, and the two highways are cosigned as they pass through Burlington, Graham, and Mebane then separate near Hillsborough where I-40 turns toward Chapel Hill, Cary, and Raleigh.

Starting from the Virginia border, the route passes South Hill and McKenney before heading into a large forest.

I-85 follows the same general path as US 1 (Boydton Plank Road and Jefferson Davis Highway), as the two cross several times between the North Carolina border and the northern terminus outside Petersburg.

In 2004, I-85 was rerouted around Greensboro; and it split with I-40 eight miles (13 km) east of the original departure point.

As a result, I-85 was closed to traffic for approximately two miles (3.2 km) between its split with I-75 and the interchange with SR 400.

An extension of I-85 has been proposed west from Montgomery to intersect I-20/I-59 just east of the Mississippi–Alabama state line,[4] where it will connect with I-20/I-59 near Cuba, Alabama.