- November 17, 2024
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Officials from Flagler County, the city of Palm Coast, the Department of Transportation and other agencies gathered under a white tent on Matanzas Woods Parkway May 18 for the Matanzas Woods Interstate 95 interchange groundbreaking, speaking against a backdrop of woods that had been shorn to make way for on- and off-ramps.
“It’s a project that’s been a long time coming,” County Commissioner Frank Meeker said. “I know the board is particularly happy having this project come to fruition, about 17 years after the devastating wildfires that pointed out the need for an additional interchange. I remember the old jokes back in those days, when everybody said, ‘Yeah, the animals can get out over the land bridge, but the citizens of Palm Coast are kind of stuck.’”
The 1998 fires required the mandatory evacuation of about 35,000 people and burned an area of about 84,000 acres, twice Palm Coast’s size at the time, he said.
Actual roadway work on the new interchange, by Hubbard Construction Company, starts June 5, according to a county news release.
Matanzas Woods Parkway will close between 7 p.m. June 5 and Aug. 10, opening before the start of the coming school year.
The entire project will take 368 days, including a pre-roadwork portion that started May 4, and federal and state grant money will cover the roughly $9 million in construction costs.
Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts said the interchange will provide much more than just an emergency evacuation route.
“When this project was first conceived, we thought of the issue of the fires and the evacuation route, and how that was so important,” he said. “But the Palm Coast that we know and love has grown, and we need this for a bunch of other reasons. Think in terms of relieving congestion on Palm Coast Parkway. This provides another ingress and egress to our city from the north. Think of the two corollary projects: the Old Kings Road extension project which is being done at the same time, and the Palm Harbor extension project. That working together relieves the traffic congestion and the risks associated with traffic congestion funneled by Matanzas High School. So in any number of ways, this project and those two corollary projects will make this place a much better place to live, work and play for all of us.”
Details on the interchange project details will be updated at matanzas95interchange.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/Matanzaswoodsparkway, and on Twitter @Matanzas_Woods, according to a county news release.
