Interstate 595 (I-595), also known as the Port Everglades Expressway and as the unsigned State Road 862 (FL 862), is a 12.860-mile (20.696 km) auxiliary Interstate highway that connects Interstate 75, Alligator Alley & Interstate 475 (Sawgrass Expressway) in Sunrise in the west with Florida's Turnpike, Interstate 95, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, U.S. Route 1, and State Road A1A before terminating at Port Everglades in the Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood / Dania Beach tripoint, in the east. The interstate route was conceived in 1969, and planned as an interstate starting in 1974. Construction began in 1984, with the highway opening in stages in the late 1980s, with completion in 1991. The reversible tolled express lanes opened in 2014.
Route description[]
The Interstate Highway begins in Sunrise as the eastern part of an interchange with Interstate 75 on the southern and western ends (I-75 "north" leads into Alligator Alley on the west side) and the Sawgrass Expressway (FL 869) 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 the populated part of Broward County and Fort Lauderdale. At University Drive (FL 817), I-595 goes below a partial stack interchange. Three miles east of that interchange, it meets with Florida's Turnpike and U.S. Highway 441. In Fort Lauderdale, I-595 intersects with Interstate 95 at the northwestern end of the airport. At the eastern end of the airport, it has its final interchange with U.S. Highway 1 (which runs concurrently with State Road A1A at the interchange), providing access to the airport and Port Everglades. The eastern terminus consists of two lanes for US 1 southbound, two for US 1 northbound and two lanes for Port Everglades via Eller Drive. The exit for southbound US 1 has a ramp to the airport. State Road A1A is not listed on the exit signs.
History[]
Interstate 595 grew out of a highway plan for connecting Port Everglades with Alligator Alley, first conceived in 1969 as the Port Expressway. In 1974, once I-75 was rerouted to Broward County on Alligator Alley as a part of its eastern connection from Naples, it was proposed to be built as an interstate, likely as the southmost end of I-75. However, when the southern terminus of I-75 was moved from Broward to Miami-Dade County at the Palmetto Expressway (FL 826) and the Gratigny Parkway (FL 924) in the late 1970s, it delayed the construction of the trans-Broward expressway.
In the early 1980s, I-595 was planned to be partially a toll highway to cover its cost of construction. By the time construction started on July 26, 1984, the tolls for the highway vanished, and it was built with only minor changes in its route. The first section, between I-75 and Hiatus Road opened in May 1988, with the section between Florida's Turnpike and US 1 opening on February 24, 1989, and the last section, connecting the disjointed sections opening on October 21, 1989. The highway was designated as I-595 on June 11, 1990, and the Rainbow Interchange with I-95 was completed on March 22, 1991, the last unfinished interchange of the original plan.
The portion of the highway between I-95 and US 1 follows the right of way of the Port Everglades Railroad tracks that had previously run from the CSX railroad to Port Everglades.
In 2002, I-595, along with most of Florida's interstates, switched over from a sequential exit numbering system to a mileage based exit numbering system. Numbers were changed again at about the time the express lanes were opened in spring of 2014.
Express lanes[]
The $1.8 billion tolled SunPass HOT express lanes project in the middle of the expressway to relieve the traffic congestion opened for test use on March 26, 2014 and started tolling on April 9, 2014. The Express Lanes will significantly improve the capacity and operations of the I-595 corridor by providing three 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 have tolls 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 U.S. 441/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[]
Mainline[]
Exits 1-7 feed into the FL 84 frontage roads. The entire route is in Broward County.
Express lanes[]
The entire route is in Broward County.