$236 Million, 6-Year Major Project Beginning To Totally Rebuild Entire I-10, Highway 29 Interchange

April 1, 2024

Editor’s note: This is not an April Fool’s joke.

A major $236 million Florida Department of Transportation reconstruction project  is beginning to completely rebuild the I-10 and Highway 29 interchange.

It will include construction of all-new I-10 travel lanes and about a dozen bridges over six years.

For a complete graphical look at project details, click here.

FDOT said 62,000 commuters travel through the corridor daily.

The project includes the following shown on the map above (the numbers correspond to the map, click to enlarge):

  1. Construction of six new main lanes on I-10 through the center of the interchange, requiring six new bridges.
  2. Five existing I-10 bridges will be converted, and one new bridge will be constructed for ramps.
  3. Remove the I-10 loop ramp from I-10 to northbound Highway 29.
  4. Construct extended two-lane ramps east of the interchange.
  5. Replace the existing North Palafox and CSX bridges to accommodate widening of I-10.
  6. Modify the Highway 29 at Dairy Road intersection to allow eastbound and westbound traffic to I-10 from Diamond Dairy.
  7. Construct stormwater ponds (shown in blue on the map above).

The first steps of planning the massive project started in November 2005. The anticipated completion is the summer of 2030.

Noise walls will be constructed along I-10 to separate the roadway from the Hope Manor, Oak Forest/Lost Creek, Robins Ridge and Willow Tree Acres neighborhoods.

During the six-years of construction, nighttime single lane closures  will occur on I-10 and Highway 29 between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. At least one travel lane will be open at all times. During construction, drivers on I-10 and Highway 29 will periodically encounter temporary detours and lane shifts. Traffic pacing operations will also be used to slow I-10 traffic between Nine Mile Road and Scenic Highway between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., Monday through Thursday. The pacing operations will be used instead of full I-10 closures.

The I-10 speed limit will be reduced from the current 60 mph to 50 mph.

FDOT just recently completed a $6.3 million project to resurface Highway 29 from Brent Lane to north of I-10, upgrade traffic signals  and make Americans With Disability Act improvements.

For a complete graphical look at project details, click here.

FDOT will hold a hybrid public meeting from 5:30 until 6:30 p.m. on April 4 at the Marie Young Wedgewood Community Center at 6405 Wagner Road in Pensacola.

NorthEscambia.com graphic, click to enlarge.

Comments

20 Responses to “$236 Million, 6-Year Major Project Beginning To Totally Rebuild Entire I-10, Highway 29 Interchange”

  1. Meme on April 5th, 2024 12:58 pm

    FIX PINE FOREST AT DETROIT. Can’t wait till those housing developments open. Better put a Highway Patrol there permanently so he can work all the accidents that will happen.

  2. Le Chiffre on April 4th, 2024 3:11 pm

    Will this be the same company that build the bridge that collapsed in 2020?

  3. Infidel Numero Uno on April 3rd, 2024 8:36 pm

    Yeah screw the new smooth commute through there. Gimme orange barrels and traffic jams. Now you’re thinking!

  4. MR REALITY on April 3rd, 2024 6:35 pm

    Time for some public records requests William….

  5. Don cooper on April 2nd, 2024 5:02 pm

    After all this work it looks like to me there is going g to be more traffic lights then we have now.

  6. George on April 2nd, 2024 1:13 pm

    That interchange was just redone and it works great but somebody’with deep pockets is going to make a lot of money. Who cares about doing the pine foorest inter change
    Where it is really needed .

  7. JJ on April 2nd, 2024 11:18 am

    Really, a new design.
    Put the east bound I-10 traffic that wNts south bound 29 exit on the west side of 29 and loop around to 29. THEN YOU CAN REMOVE THE TRAFFIC LIGHT NORTH OF THE I-10 BRIDGE. DUUUUH!!!!

  8. RW on April 2nd, 2024 10:45 am

    FIX PINE FOREST

  9. Local on April 2nd, 2024 7:59 am

    I like the new one we just got.
    Isn’t there somewhere else the $$ is needed more?

  10. Honest John on April 1st, 2024 6:49 pm

    I can’t wait to see the orange barrels and the 50 mph speed limit !!!

  11. More time wasted on April 1st, 2024 5:58 pm

    Just about the time something works fairly good here, somebody comes in to give us yet ANOTHER dose of idiocy with road “improvements” I think think of a LOT of ways to better spend money on here for road improvements. The first one being between Pine Forest Rd and I10. I bet none of our brilliant county commissioners even DRIVE that road so it’s of no importance to them!

  12. Mike H on April 1st, 2024 2:38 pm

    So we can plan on it being complete by 2032 maybe and with an extra 100 million on top of the current price.
    Here is our next long term traffic nightmare.

  13. Richard on April 1st, 2024 12:24 pm

    The construction was just completed and traffic is flowing better than it ever has. Now it will be torn up again for six years.

  14. Crazy on April 1st, 2024 10:41 am

    I can’t believe we’re going through this type of situation again with the construction. This Hwy 29 overpass and I-10 construction was reconfigured a few years ago and I believe it’s the best ever. I have and continue to travel that area for the past 40 years. Starting this construction on something that has been proven to work great is a waste of tax payers money!! Please reconsider and put the money into other badly needed infrastructure such as widening Hwy 29 to Century or repairs on a lot of roads around here. Hey 29 and I-10 is great the way it is

  15. Kane on April 1st, 2024 10:33 am

    AGAIN!?! How about some relief on Pine Forest and 10 ya’know where it turns into a bottlenecking merge lane for about 400ft then to a single lane for less than half a mile before connection to Nine Mile rd. This bottleneck backs traffic up from 3pm until 6pm every workday.

    To make matters worse there are three THREE new big housing projects that are about to open on that same stretch of Pine Forest. Yet they are going to rebuild the hwy 29 exchange the one they just rebuilt some 12 years ago that took 3 years to complete. Hwy 29 traffic isn’t even as bad now that you have motorists diverting down Pine Forest to get to NF. How about some road work on the rest of Pine Forest maybe even some on W. Roberts now that it is a new main thoroughfare.

    Stop throwing money at something that is not even an issue.

  16. Shellie on April 1st, 2024 10:33 am

    Didn’t we just reopen this intersection after a redesign?

  17. Lou on April 1st, 2024 9:44 am

    I can’t wait! FDOT projects take SOOOO long. I’m sure we need the improvements…just dread the inconvenience and traffic back ups.

  18. mnon on April 1st, 2024 9:41 am

    When have they ever finished road projects? There’s been this work being done since the late 80s, nonstop, David Highway, 29, most every interstate ramp area. They rotate through them all…

  19. John Connor on April 1st, 2024 8:56 am

    I remember back in 2000 talking to my dad hopefully they will 4 lane Blue Angel. It’s 2024 and it still not done. It is a safety matter more then anything. There is no 4 lane option on the west side of Pensacola going north. How this was allowed to happen when other projects were 4 laned for Hurricane evacuation needs like st road 87. Just a complete lack of judgment by out local officials not pushing the agenda more.

  20. John Connor on April 1st, 2024 8:41 am

    In 2016 they could have done this for 86 million but they kicked the can down the road. In 2020 the cost was 126 million but agsin we are not Orlando so it gets pushed back again. Then in 2022 it was 186 million but again no state funding. Then in 2023 it was finally finalized for the amount of 236 million. There is a lesson here, FDOT. Now the longer you sit on Pine Forest exit and do nothing the more it’s going to cost you. The exit is defunct as it is with its 1966 design. Now development is over taking all the right a away. So good job again! Let’s not forget about 9 mile road that would have been 6 laned if it was in Central Florida.