Interstate 595 (Florida)

Infobox road
state=FL
route=595
type=I
alternate_name=Port Everglades Expressway


maint=FDOT
length_mi=13
length_round=2
length_ref=
established = Late 80's and Early 90's
direction_a=West
terminus_a=Jct|state=FL|I|75|SR|84|SR|93|Toll|869 in Weston, FL
junction=Jct|state=FL|FLTP| near Fort Lauderdale, FL
Jct|state=FL|I|95 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
direction_b=East
terminus_b=Jct|state=FL|US|1|SR|A1A|SR|5 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
previous_type=SR
previous_route=594
next_type=SR
next_route=595

Interstate 595 (I-595) connects Interstate 75 in the west with Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, US 1 and Interstate 95 in the east (the interchange between I-595 and I-95. It actually ends at US 1 and A1A because A1A and US 1 are concurrent from Southeast 17th Street to Dania Beach Boulevard. 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. It is locally called 595 and some maps indicate it as the Port Everglades Expressway. I-595 measures 12.86 miles (20.70 km) in length. I-595 is also known as the Port Everglades Expressway and as the unsigned State Road 862 by the expressway agency that owns it, FDOT.

The western highway interchange consists of I-75 "north" (nicknamed Alligator Alley) to the west, I-75 south to the south, the Sawgrass Expressway toll road to the north, and I-595 to the east. State Road 84 (the former number for Alligator Alley) runs parallel to the highway, acting as an access road on either side of it most of the way. 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 .

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 (now Miami-Dade) County. 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. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20041012055753/www.southfloridaroads.com/595.html History of Interstate 595] ] The original eastern terminus was supposed to be at an extended A1A just east of Port Everglades.Fact|date=October 2007 The eastern terminus was pushed back to US 1, which is actually concurrent with A1A from Dania Beach Boulevard to Southeast 17th Street.Fact|date=October 2007

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

Express lanes

There are currently plans for tolled SunPass express lanes on the middle of the expressway to relieve the traffic. [http://www.i-595.com/default.aspx] The current plans are for lanes separated by plastic poles. The original plans called for elevated lanes. FDOT says the plans were changed so a monorail system could be put on the middle of the road and because the lanes separated by plastic poles cost less.Fact|date=October 2007

Exit list

References

External links

* [http://www.dot.state.fl.us/planning/statistics/gis/default.htm FDOT] GIS data
* [http://www.i-595.com/default.aspx I-595 Express Improvement Project]

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