SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — The long-awaited Interstate 75 at Fruitville Road Interchange project in Sarasota County is getting fast-tracked thanks to funding from a state program, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
The governor was in Bradenton with Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue to announce the project's groundbreaking and grant funding for Port Tampa Bay, among several other projects.
The I-75 at Fruitville Road Interchange is currently a partial cloverleaf configuration. Construction will transform the interchange into a diverging diamond configuration. The new configuration "shifts eastbound traffic to the left to allow for improved access to northbound I-75 and shifts westbound traffic to the left to allow for improved access to southbound I-75," FDOT said online.
The project, which DeSantis said wouldn't have started until 2030, was able to begin thanks to funding from Moving Florida Forward. It's slated to be finished by 2027, DeSantis added.
"Because of Moving Florida Forward, [the interchange project] will be completed in 2027," DeSantis said. "So ahead of schedule, fully funded and years ahead of when it would have even broken ground."
The project is expected to widen I-75 along a two-mile stretch, from Palmer Boulevard to north of Fruitville Road, as crews reconstruct the existing 6-lane highway. Auxiliary lanes will be added and the existing bridges over Fruitville Road will also be replaced.
Additionally, about 1.6 miles of Fruitville Road will be widened from Honore Avenue to east of Coburn Road.
FDOT says the Fruitville Road interchange will be similar to the recently completed interchange at I-75 and University Parkway located just north.
The project is one of 20 across Florida aimed at relieving traffic congestion as part of the Moving Florida Forward Initiative, which was fully funded in this year's state budget.