I-95, turnpike connection in Martin County could be a decade away

But Florida’s Turnpike officials want the public to weigh in now on proposed alignment.

The state is preparing to spend more than $150 million to make it easier to cross from Interstate 95 to Florida’s Turnpike.

The idea is to reduce congestion on Indiantown Road in Jupiter and improve highway safety, turnpike officials say.

Plans for the first seamless connection between the state’s two main north-south highways call for construction of four elevated ramps, 25 to 27 feet high, on either side of Bridge Road in Martin County. At that point, the gap between the two highways widens slightly after they ran with nearly no space between them for 6 miles north of Jupiter.

When the project is combined with widening the turnpike to eight lanes from four in that area, the price tag balloons to $309 million.

Even though public hearings to review the proposed alignment are scheduled for this month, design work cannot begin before 2031 as no money has been set aside in the state’s five-year plan. That means completion of the project could be 2035 or later.

Until then, I-95 travelers will still be able to switch to the turnpike at Indiantown Road in Jupiter, where the two roads are 1,100 feet apart.

Planning for the project dates to 2021. In February 2023, the turnpike authority selected HW Lochner for a $1.2 million contract to evaluate nine locations between Jupiter and Fort Pierce. Now they’ve narrowed it to one.

It would be the first seamless connection between the turnpike and the interstate, state officials said. 

Entering the Twilight Zone

It would remove 15,600 vehicles on average per day from Indiantown Road by 2050, the Florida Department of Transportation calculates. Turnpike traffic, which is known to back up at Indiantown Road during rush hour, accounts for the bulk of the reduction. 

The new connection would not add turnpike access at Bridge Road, meaning local travelers will still have to go to Indiantown Road or Martin Highway in Palm City to get on the turnpike. Martin officials, sensitive to fears about western growth, “want to avoid having gas stations and hotels (there),” as Commission Chairperson Sarah Heard said during a July meeting.

In a June presentation to the Jupiter Island Town Council, Commissioner Joe Taddeo reminded his colleagues that “adding an interchange to Bridge Road would be met with a lot of opposition” from those opposing growth.

Developers along Southwest Bridge Road would “love” a turnpike exit, Taddeo said. Discovery Land Co.’s Atlantic Fields calls for 317 homes on 1,500 acres east of I-95, and developer Buz DiVosta’s Storie announced plans for 4,000 homes on 2,700 acres a mile west of the turnpike.

But even without a turnpike exit, the connection to I-95 is expected to help because it would give turnpike drivers a way out if a crash blocks traffic on the unbroken 19-mile stretch between Indiantown Road and Martin Highway. Locals have dubbed the stretch the “Twilight Zone” for its long delays after lane-blocking crashes, county officials said.

The state’s plan would, however, give rescue vehicles emergency access to the turnpike in both directions from Bridge Road. 

Public hearings coming up

The option selected by the state is estimated to cost $156 million. It calls for construction of two ramps north of Bridge Road and two ramps south.

The ramps north of Bridge Road would cut through the northern end of the 126-acre Hobe Sound Farms, site of a popular farmers market. Owner Zach Gazza worries that he’ll lose cattle pasture, endangering his operation. 

His plans for continued expansion would be clouded in uncertainty, as the state doesn’t expect to start buying right of way until 2032 or later.

The state plans for Gazza’s property call for ramps that would allow southbound I-95 traffic to enter the turnpike and northbound turnpike traffic to go north on I-95. The ramps will have to be elevated to pass over existing traffic lanes.

Two more elevated ramps would rise south of Bridge Road, on cattle grazing land owned by retired attorney Robert Shapiro. Those ramps would offer the northbound I-95 connection to the turnpike and the southbound turnpike link to I-95.

The state rejected a $231 million option that put all four ramps north of Bridge Road crisscrossing Gazza’s property.

A virtual public hearing will be held at 6 pm Monday, Oct. 20. Registration is online here.

An in-person public hearing will be held at 5:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 21 at the Indian River State College Clare & Gladys Wolf High-Technology Center, 2400 SE Salerno Road in Stuart.

Zach Gazza’s farm

Gazza, a lawyer and land speculator, is known for his company Be A Man Buy Land, which bought hundreds of lots in the unspoiled Pal-Mar area and marketed them to outdoors-lovers looking to own a piece of paradise. He has since cut an $18.8 million deal to sell and swap lands with Martin County and the South Florida Water Management District.

At the same time, he has been turning the land between the highways, which he bought for $1.4 million in 2019, into an agritourism hub, drawing families on weekends and school field trips during the week.

He raises chicks, goats and bees. He has a lake for fishing. He grows wildflowers and coconut trees and clusia and patches of sugar cane, which he lets kids taste. In one program, kids mash together wildflower seeds into a dirt ball and hurl them with a water-balloon launcher at targets in a field, which disperses the seeds.

He envisions letting schoolchildren plant and tend a garden then sell their produce at the weekend farmers market. 

He had plans to set up a 60-space RV campground for agritourism visitors. 

The logo for Hobe Sound Farms features a cow and a calf, a point Gazza makes continually when speaking about the state plans to cut through his grazing land.

“Everyone knows the cows by the lake,” he said. “Nobody’s going to stop here and park their RV under an overpass.”

‘What am I supposed to do with my farm?’

Gazza also criticizes the highway-connection project. 

“This is going to completely change the landscape of the entrance to Martin County,” he told the Martin County Commission in July. “I’ve been asking for years how much of my property they’re going to take. I can’t get the answer. It looks like what they’ve decided on is they’re taking the whole north portion of my farm, which eliminates the cow calf operation. That means no more calves. What am I supposed to do with my farm?”

He estimates he has invested millions into converting the once swampy land into a working farm and wonders whether the state’s plan is worth it if it doesn’t add turnpike access at Bridge Road. 

“These were specifically designed to keep anybody in Hobe Sound on Bridge Road to get on the turnpike,” he said. “The evacuation argument is a joke.”

He dismisses the suggestion that such an interchange would increase the value of his land because a full interchange likely would require him to sell his land to the state. 

Further, the property is outside the county’s urban services boundary and Martin County has shown no inclination to allow commercial buildup at the existing I-95 Bridge Road exit.

Martin County commissioners dismissed the idea of opening the turnpike at Bridge Road to motorists.

“I recall in our preliminary discussions that one of the big points that was emphasized was that there wouldn’t be exits because we want to avoid having gas stations and hotels and any of those possibilities,” Heard said.

Added Greg Braun, whose Guardians of Martin County have supported the project, in an interview with Stet News: “What we like about the project right now is it does not provide that connection.”

As for the size of the ramps and its impact on Martin’s rural image, County Commissioner Ed Ciampi urged residents to be patient but speak out at public sessions.

“It would absolutely change the look and feel of that portion of Martin County,” he said at the July meeting. “But there’s no reason for people to start going into full panic mode … because it’s a long, long way off.”