- April 25, 2024
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The Florida Department of Transportation is looking into the possibility of constructing an interchange at I-95 and Pioneer Trail with the goal to alleviate traffic congestion at Port Orange's Dunlawton Ave. interchange and State Road 44.
According to FDOT Public Information Officer Jessica Ottaviano, a project development and environmental phase preliminary study is being conducted.
"As we get feedback, we're able to get alternatives to move forward with this," Ottaviano said. "There's no additional funding for other phases of the project, just this study."
A public kickoff meeting to inform the public on the project was held on Thursday, June 14. However, not all residents in attendance thought that the interchange project would benefit the community.
Resident Teresa Stratton said that she did not think the interchange will help with traffic and that it will only create more traffic on Pioneer Trail.
"It will ease it off 44 perhaps," Stratton said. "But it's just going to route it by the residents that live right off Pioneer Trail."
New Smyrna Beach resident Mel Phillips said he agreed, adding that traffic would be diverted to Turnbull Bay Road as well.
Another resident, Dick Abbott, said that instead of the interchange, Williamson Blvd. should extend past Port Orange and Pioneer Trail and further south to State Road 44.
"Quit spending millions of dollars on all of these studies," Abbott said. "It won't work here; the roads are too narrow."
Port Orange City Manager Jake Johansson said that he previously spoke with the secretary of transportation to relay how important the interchange would be for both emergency management by bringing people onto I-95 to go north as well as economic development.
But it is that development that has some, like Vernon Current, worried about the environmental impact. Current said he would like to either see the wetlands not built upon or to have the development and logging rights sold to the state in order for the land to be conserved.
"Human beings are human beings," Current said. "They're looking to make a profit; they don't care what they do or how they do it and they'll just come in, clear, cut the whole place and then they'll just move on."
Johansson said another reason for the interchange would be helping with the flow of local traffic moving north and using the Dunlawton interchange. He said that the interchange would help people get on and off the highway going both north and south, especially in the morning when children are going to school.
"I think it's beneficial for Port Orange for many reasons, and I don't mind that New Smyrna Beach people come to our interchange, but it would make sense to get rid of congestion and to get rid of it now," Johansson said. "Because Dunlawton and Williamson is such a choke point."
Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette said that the interchange will provide relief for the amount of congestion on Dunlawton and Williamson while also creating a regional impact. For Burnette, the interchange is an answer not only to vehicular traffic but to the new construction that will be taking place in the future.
"We're almost getting ahead of ourselves with the number of homes that are going up in this area both in New Smyrna Beach and Port Orange," Burnette said. "This is almost a way of playing catchup."
