Southwest 10th Street in Deerfield Beach is about to trade its daily crawl for a full-blown construction marathon, as the Florida Department of Transportation moves ahead with a long-planned connector that will finally tie I-95 to the Sawgrass Expressway and tackle one of Broward County’s most notorious bottlenecks.
The multi-phase overhaul will add limited-access connector lanes, elevated ramps and flyovers, plus a rebuilt local SW 10th Street running alongside. State officials expect the work to stretch across most of the next decade, and some nearby businesses and residents are already bracing for years of dust, detours and disrupted access.
What FDOT Has on the Calendar
According to FDOT, the corridor is in final design, with early construction work scheduled to begin this summer, major corridor building set for summer 2027 and an anticipated finish in 2032. The construction price tag is pegged at about $1.3 billion.
Initial work packages are expected to include new noise barrier walls along SW 10th Street, reconstruction of the NW 48th Street bridge and utility relocations. FDOT says the plan cleanly separates regional connector lanes from a rebuilt local street and folds in landscaping, drainage upgrades and a 12-foot shared-use path for people walking and biking.
How the Design Is Supposed to Help
Engineers describe a two-tier corridor: elevated, limited-access connector lanes to carry regional traffic, and a reconstructed local SW 10th Street to handle neighborhood trips and driveway access.
WSP, the lead designer on the interchange, says the configuration and smart-traffic systems should trim peak-hour travel times, with the project team estimating savings of up to eight minutes for local trips and as much as 14 minutes for highway commuters, according to WSP. The plans also call for reworked I-95 ramps and express-lane tie-ins that are intended to cut down on dangerous weaving and boost reliability for freight trucks moving across the region.
Businesses and Neighbors Eye the Downsides
Not everyone along the corridor is cheering. Some shopkeepers and property owners told CBS News Miami they worry years of construction will mean constant noise, tougher customer access and the loss of parking spaces while crews are at work.
Regional planners counter that the project has been through a long public process. The Broward MPO notes that a Community Oversight Advisory Team (COAT) helped shape the concept and that FDOT’s Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study baked in community recommendations, per the Broward MPO. Broward County has already signed off on related canal and utility improvements, clearing a key hurdle for the connector to move forward.
What Residents Should Watch For Next
FDOT is holding a series of public meetings next Thursday to walk people through construction phasing, traffic impacts and outreach plans. The agency says early work packages are slated to start this summer, with the major corridor build-out following in 2027.
Residents who want updates, meeting exhibits or to sign up for project notices can find schedules and contact details on the official project website.
The long-awaited connector is billed as a fix for chronic delays and a boost for freight movement across Broward County once it is complete, but getting there will mean years of staged work and close coordination with local businesses, neighborhoods and county agencies, according to WSP. In the meantime, drivers should expect traffic shifts, periodic lane changes and a lengthy construction footprint along SW 10th Street and I-95 as those early phases roll out.
