Interstate 595 (Florida)

Interstate 595 (I-595), also known as the Port Everglades Expressway and as the unsigned State Road 862, is a 12.860-mile (20.696 km) Interstate highway that connects Interstate 75 and Alligator Alley in the west with Florida's Turnpike, Interstate 95, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, US 1, and SR A1A before terminating at Port Everglades in the east.

Route description

The interstate begins in Sunrise as the eastern part of an interchange with I-75 on the south and western ends (I-75 "north" leads into Alligator Alley on the west side) and the Sawgrass Expressway on the northern end. For most of its length, State Road 84 (the former number for Alligator Alley) runs parallel to the highway, acting as an access road on either side of the interstate. From the western terminus, the highway heads east to Davie, acting as a commuter route between the western fringes of populated Broward County and Fort Lauderdale. At University Drive, I-595 flies below a partial stack interchange. Three miles east of that interchange, it meets with Florida's Turnpike and U.S. 441. In Fort Lauderdale, it intersects with I-95 at the northwestern end of the airport. At the eastern end of the airport land, it has its final interchange with U.S. 1 (which is concurrent with A1A at the interchange), providing airport and Port Everglades access.

SR A1A and US 1 are concurrent from Dania Beach Boulevard in Dania Beach, north past the airport and Port Everglades to Southeast 17th Street near downtown Fort Lauderdale. The eastern terminus consists of two lanes for US 1 southbound, two for US 1 northbound and 2 lanes for Port Everglades via Eller Drive. The exit for southbound US 1 has a ramp to the airport. A1A is not on the exit signs.

History

Interstate 595 grew out of the original plan of connecting Port Everglades with Naples with a southern and eastern extension of I-75, but in the 1970s, the southern terminus of I-75 was moved from Broward to Dade County at the Gratigny Parkway. The rerouting decision delayed construction of the planned trans-Broward expressway (which, at one point, was to be a toll road): it wasn't completed until March 22, 1991.^[2]

The portion of the highway between I-95 and US 1 was built on old Florida East Coast Railroad tracks that went to Port Everglades.

I-595 appears to be a spur route of Interstate 75 but Alligator Alley was not bannered I-75 until 1993. When I-595 was commissioned the only interstate it intersected was Interstate 95.

In 2002, I-95, along with most of Florida's interstates, switched over from a sequential exit numbering system to a mileage based exit numbering system.^[3]

Future

There are currently plans for tolled SunPass express lanes on the middle of the expressway to relieve the traffic.^[4] The Express Lanes will significantly improve the capacity and operations of the I-595 corridor by providing 3 additional at-grade lanes in the median of the corridor. The lanes will reverse direction in peak travel times (eastbound in the a.m. / westbound in the p.m.). To maximize the operational efficiency, the lanes will be tolled at varying rates throughout the day to optimize traffic flow, and access to and from the lanes will only be allowed west of 136th Avenue, east of State Road 7, and through a direct connection to the median of Florida’s Turnpike, removing long distance commuter traffic from the general purpose lanes. FDOT will retain control of the toll revenue and toll rates.

Exit list

The entire route is in Broward County.

References

External links

• FDOT GIS data
• I-595 Express Improvement Project
• Florida @ SouthEastRoads - Interstate 595