The Florida Department of Transportation wants to spend $38.3 million reworking the I-95 interchange at 45th Street in West Palm Beach, a chokepoint that handles tens of thousands of freight trucks a day and is notorious for backups spilling onto the interstate. The project would expand the existing six-lane diamond interchange to eight lanes, rebuild ramps, add turn lanes, and widen a canal bridge to make room for bikes. It's currently in the design phase, with construction not expected to start for roughly another two years.
What the Overhaul Would Change
According to CBS12, the plan calls for reconstructing and widening entrance and exit ramps while adding left- and right-turn lanes for traffic moving in both directions on 45th Street. The project would also improve bicycle and pedestrian access along the corridor, widen the bridge over the C-17 Canal, and upgrade traffic signals and overhead signage. The work covers I-95 near 45th Street as well as a stretch of 45th Street between Northpoint Boulevard and North Congress Avenue, per the same outlet's reporting.
The interchange connects West Palm Beach to the town of Mangonia Park, and it's one of the busiest freight corridors in the county. The site carries more than 41,000 heavy freight trucks daily and sees frequent traffic jams, congestion and accidents, according to Hanson, the engineering firm that worked on the underlying study. Hanson's research also pointed to increased truck traffic heading from I-95 to Congress Avenue toward the Port of Palm Beach as a contributor to the area's congestion, according to the Florida Interchange Portal.
Project Still in Design, Years From Breaking Ground
FDOT's own project website, 95at45street.com, confirms the interchange project is currently in the design phase, following completion of a Project Development and Environment study for the I-95 interchange at 45th Street. The project area stretches along I-95 roughly half a mile north and south of 45th Street, and along 45th Street itself from west of Northpoint Boulevard to North Congress Avenue. Project documents include an Interchange Modification Report dated July 2024.
CBS12 reports that FDOT expects construction to begin in summer 2028 and wrap up in spring 2031. The stated goals behind the redesign, per FDOT's project site, are to address traffic spillback onto I-95, improve how the interchange operates, reduce congestion and boost safety for drivers using the corridor.
One of Several Interchange Overhauls Coming to the County
The 45th Street project is part of a much larger wave of highway work headed for Palm Beach County. FDOT expects I-95 construction in the county to continue for at least 10 more years, with nearly a dozen interchanges slated for work during that stretch, according to WPTV. That includes plans to convert the Lantana Road interchange into a diverging diamond interchange, with work there scheduled to start in 2026-27, and a separate $1 billion investment in express lanes running from Broward County to Delray Beach along I-95.
Notably, an earlier design concept for the 45th Street interchange studied by Hanson had proposed a diverging diamond layout — described as the first such proposal for FDOT's five-county District 4 — which would have cut conflict points at the intersection to 14, compared with 26 for a conventional diamond interchange. The current $38.3 million plan outlined by CBS12 instead expands the existing diamond configuration to eight lanes rather than converting it to that diverging diamond design.
