State awards $340 million for new I-95/US 1 interchange in Ormond Beach

ORMOND BEACH ― Florida Department of Transportation officials on Tuesday announced $340 million in state funding for the construction of a new Interstate 95/U.S. 1 interchange.

Construction will start in fall 2027 after the design for the new interchange is finalized and necessary additional land is acquired, announced FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue.

The new interchange is expected to be completed in fall 2030.

The press conference took place at Ormond Beach City Hall. In addition to Perdue, the other speakers were John Tyler, secretary for FDOT's District 5 (Central Florida), Ormond Beach Mayor Bill Partington and State Rep. Tom Leek (R-Ormond Beach), who chairs the Florida House appropriations committee.

"Today is a great day for Ormond Beach," said Partington. "There's going to be a huge celebration when this project is finally completed."

Here's what we know about the project:

It's long overdue

The existing interchange at I-95's Exit 273 was built in the early 1960s when Ormond Beach's population was a fifth of the size it is today.

"It has never been renovated," said Peggy Farmer, a longtime Ormond Beach resident who chairs the North U.S. 1 Coalition, a citizens group that has been pushing for a new interchange. The coalition spearheaded efforts a few years ago to raise money for the installation of grass medians on U.S. 1 on both sides of the interchange.

Farmer said the existing I-95/US 1 interchange is not only obsolete, it's also become one of the region's most dangerous. A recent study found that the area surrounding the interchange has been the scene of more than 70 traffic accidents, including some fatalities, over a three-year period.

Perdue said the I-95/US 1 interchange is "one of the last interchanges on the I-95 corridor that's the original interstate construction. (A new interchange is) desperately needed."

The area has seen tremendous growth

The area west of the interchange now includes the huge Destination Daytona entertainment/retail complex, several hotels and a Love's Truck Stop. Further up U.S. 1 are two entrances to the fast-growing Plantation Bay community.

On the interchange's east side are several fast-food restaurants, retail strip centers and office parks as well as the entrances to both the new Plantation Oaks 55-and-older community and headquarters for Security First Insurance, which employs several hundred workers.

U.S. 1 is also the road that leads to downtown Ormond Beach and the cities of Daytona Beach, South Daytona, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater.

Project offers new design to improve traffic flow, safety

The existing interchange has looping southbound entrance and exit ramps to and from I-95 on its west side. The looping northbound entrance and exit ramps are on its east side.

The design for the new interchange calls for changing U.S. 1 to a "diverging diamond" pattern that eliminates the need for looping entrance/exit ramps. The objective is to help traffic flow more easily and logically and hopefully reduce the number of accidents.

The project will include the installation of paved "shared-use" pedestrian/bicycle paths on either side of U.S. 1.

It will also require more right-of-way space

FDOT's plans for the new interchange include acquiring nearly 10 acres of land on both sides of I-95 for right-of-way space. The land acquisitions will include the existing Sunoco gas station/Florida Citrus World store property on the interchange's northeast quadrant.

Who's paying for it?

Funding for the project comes from Gov. Ron DeSantis's $4 billion "Moving Florida Forward Infrastructure Initiative," which does not include any money from the federal government, said FDOT spokeswoman Cindi Lane.

Partington praised DeSantis and the Florida Legislature for creating a surplus in the state's budget that made the funding for a new I-95/US 1 interchange possible. "(It's) such a smart use of taxpayers' money to improve the transportation infrastructure for our residents current and future," he said.

It will be Volusia County's most expensive interchange ever (for now)

The projected cost to build the new I-95/US 1 interchange is expected to well exceed what FDOT spent on the new I-95/International Speedway Boulevard (State Road 92)/I-4 interchange in Daytona Beach a few years ago. That project, completed in early 2020, cost a little over $200 million, said Maryam Ghyabi, an Ormond Beach transportation planning consultant involved in efforts to improve Volusia County's I-95 interchanges.

"Since (2020), the costs for road construction is gone way up," she said.

SEE: Ormond Beach's aging I-95 interchange at US 1 and FDOT's plans to replace it

It also won't be the county's last new interchange project

Still in the works is FDOT's planned new I-95/Pioneer Trail interchange in New Smyrna Beach, which is expected to cost $100 million and is already funded. Construction is expected to begin in early 2024, said Ghyabi.

The I-95/Pioneer Trail interchange project is currently being challenged in court by environmentalists concerned about potential harmful impacts to the nearby Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve.

Also planned is a new interchange to replace the old one at I-95 and LPGA Boulevard in Daytona Beach, which is now in its design phase.

That project, which has yet to secure funding for construction, would also widen LPGA Boulevard west of the interstate from two to four lanes and include a new four-lane bridge over the Tomoka River.

It won't be cheap. The estimated price tag for the new I-95/LPGA Boulevard interchange is a half-billion dollars. No timetable has been set for construction, said Ghyabi, who added that it might not happen until the early 2030s.

Further off in the future is a new interchange where I-95 and Granada Boulevard (State Road 40) intersect in Ormond Beach, where just to the west the massive 10,000-home Avalon Park Daytona Beach development is planned. There is no timetable or funding yet for that project either, said Ghyabi.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: State awards $350 million for new I-95/US1 interchange in Ormond Beach