Drivers may have recently noticed sand piles, cranes, and heavy equipment at the Golden Glades Interchange these days. Construction to improve the interchange officially kicked off on March 18th.
“This is a $908 million dollar construction project that’s going to introduce new bridges, new connections to South Florida,” said Enmanuel Espinal, a construction resident engineer with the GGI project.
Over a year ago, NBC6 reported on the massive revamp of the major thoroughfare that connects Interstate 95, the Florida's Turnpike, the Palmetto Expressway (826), State Road 7, State Road 9 and 167th Street.
Over 400,000 vehicles travel through the Golden Glades Interchange daily. The sweeping project is expected to enhance the area with road expansions and repaving.
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“We’re going to be widening I-95 northbound and southbound on both sides. We’re going to be providing a direct connection from I-95 express to the Florida turnpike which doesn’t exist today, but the major star of this show is the connection from 826 eastbound to northbound I-95. That connection doesn’t exist today. Right now people have to travel south on the turnpike connector and do a loop around get on I-95 north. After the project is completed, people will be able to directly to I-95 from 826,” said Espinal.
Through Gov. Ron Desantis’ infrastructure initiative called Moving Florida Forward, the project started ahead of schedule.
“The project got an injection of $150 million dollars which advanced the start of this project. They found that there was a big value in advancing this project,” said Espinal.
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Engineers plan to build 32 bridges during construction and this is the biggest design, bid, build project in Florida history.
Some drivers in South Florida weighed in on whether they think the project will relieve traffic.
“I mean obviously there is a lot of congestion, but to get to where we need to get is very annoying, said driver Jack Roa.
“Construction is going to make it difficult over time because obviously they’re going to be doing more closings, but right now it’s not too bad,” said driver Derek Hicks.
Engineers with the Florida Department of Transportation explained the overall benefits once the work is complete.
“This project is definitely going to improve the regional mobility of the interchange. During construction we’re going to have some headaches but we’re going to maintain existing traffic, minimize traffic congestion and then at the end of the project we foresee this improving the congestion relief for South Florida traffic and for the community,” said Espinal.
The entire GGI project will take over 7 years to complete with an estimated completion date of Fall 2031. Espinal said the contractor has an incentive to complete the new 826 expansion three years earlier.
A full list of all the construction changes can be found here.
