VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Construction is set to begin Friday on a new Interstate 95 interchange in Volusia County.
The 74-acre project would create an interchange between Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach, south of Daytona Beach, at a road known as Pioneer Trail. The road now has an I-95 overpass. Preliminary work, clearing land, began Friday, according to officials.
According to the Florida Department of Transportation, this new interchange will help alleviate traffic congestion at State Road 421 (Dunlawton Avenue) and at State Road 44 (Lytle Avenue).
The project will widen Pioneer Trail to four lanes from Williamson Boulevard to south of Turnbull Bay Road. FDOT says the full project will take three years to complete.
The project has been considered for years, with the Department of Transportation submitting an application for an environmental resource permit to the district in February 2022. The district approved the permit in 2023 but drew a challenge from the groups Bear Warriors United and the Sweetwater Coalition of Volusia County and two individuals.
Administrative Law Judge E. Gary Early in January 2024 issued a 55-page recommended order that said the permit should be denied. Under administrative law, the recommendation went back to the district for final action.
District staff members took issue with parts of Early’s recommendation and drew up a proposed final order to approve the permit in March 2024.
Early’s recommendation hinged on a canal in the project area that has been designated an “Outstanding Florida Water.” He wrote that the designation required the Department of Transportation to show the project is “clearly in the public interest” — a test he concluded the department did not meet.
But the district’s proposed final order backing the permit concluded that the project “is clearly in the public interest.” It said Early improperly ruled that an “extra” environmental benefit needed to be shown to find the project was in the public interest.
For more information on the project, click here.
News Service of Florida contributed to this report.