People traveling up the Treasure Coast could soon see reduced driving times, thanks to an I-95 interchange that opened a year ahead of schedule Monday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cut the ribbon on the project at Oslo Road in Indian River County. It’s the first new interchange built in the area in almost 50 years, the governor said, and seeks to reduce congestion at Indrio Road and State Road 60.
At a press briefing, DeSantis said the project would reduce response time by up to 56% for local emergency services and cut commuting times in half for those traveling to the interstate from Oslo Road.
“That will ultimately save some lives, of course, because time is of the essence in some of these situations,” he said.
An interchange is a road junction that uses overpasses or underpasses to let vehicles move between highways at different grades, without stopping for crossing traffic. It differs from a standard intersection, where roads all cross at the same level.
Construction on the Oslo interchange began in 2023 and cost nearly $100 million in federal and state dollars. That came as part of the billions of dollars in transportation investments the outgoing DeSantis administration is pushing to complete. The governor announced the completion of a similar project in Sarasota last week.
DeSantis first announced his $7 billion Moving Florida Forward initiative in 2023. Though the Oslo interchange was not listed as part of that 20-project roadmap, DeSantis said Monday that accelerating high-need areas in Central Florida, Tampa and Miami under the initiative helped move other projects, like the one in Indian River, “up the queue.”
READ MORE: Florida speeds up work on 20 highway projects, per DeSantis' request
There are two South Florida projects listed on the Moving Florida Forward master plan.
In Broward County, the $1.3 billion dollar Southwest 10th Street Connector Project began early construction work in August and eyes completion in 2032. The $1 billion Golden Glades Interchange project in northwest Miami-Dade County began in March 2024 and looks to be completed by fall 2031.
