New I-95 Interchange at Oslo Road Opens in Indian River County More Than a Year Early

Drivers in southern Indian River County have a new way onto Interstate 95. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue on Monday, Oct. 5, celebrated the opening of a roughly $100 million interchange at Oslo Road, the first new I-95 interchange built in the county in nearly 50 years, and one that opened about 400 days ahead of schedule.

State officials said the project will cut drive times for Oslo Road commuters roughly in half and reduce emergency response times along that stretch of I-95 by up to 56 percent. It also gives the fast-growing area south of Vero Beach a third interstate connection between the existing interchanges at State Road 60 and Indrio Road.

What opened

The project rebuilt the Oslo Road bridge over I-95 and added a partial cloverleaf interchange with ramps in both directions. FDOT also widened Oslo Road from two lanes to four between I-95 and 58th Avenue, and added sidewalks and bicycle lanes along the corridor.

According to the governor's office, the work included:

• A new bridge carrying Oslo Road over I-95.
• Widening Oslo Road from two to four lanes.
• New sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
• A new traffic signal at 66th Avenue and new intersection lighting.
• Wrong Way Vehicle Detection technology at the interchange ramps.

Construction also realigned 82nd Avenue to make room for the new ramps. The road, long known locally as County Road 606, was transferred to FDOT and now carries the State Road 606 designation.

The governor's office said the interchange will serve as an evacuation route and improve freight movement for businesses in southern Indian River County. FDOT also created a dedicated gopher tortoise habitat on land it acquired near the interchange, which the state described as the only relocation site of its kind in southeast Florida for the protected species.

Emergency response and congestion

DeSantis framed the project as both a commuting and a public safety improvement. "This is going to bring a new critical connection to I-95 for a part of the state that has changed quite a bit," he said at the ribbon cutting, according to WPTV. "This will ultimately save some lives because time is of the essence in some of these situations."

Until now, emergency crews and residents in the Oslo Road area had to travel north to State Road 60 or south to Indrio Road in St. Lucie County to reach the interstate. Officials said the new access point should ease congestion at both of those interchanges, where traffic has grown with new development, and FDOT projects that traffic in the corridor will keep growing through 2045.

"Every single second counts when it comes to saving lives, and this is going to reduce the time it takes for first responders to get to incidents substantially," Perdue said.

Two decades in the making, finished a year early

Planning for an Oslo Road interchange was in the works for about two decades before construction began, TCPalm reported. Crews broke ground on Aug. 14, 2023, and FDOT had estimated completion in spring 2027.

The project's original cost estimate was about $96 million. TCPalm reported that a $6.4 million change order pushed the total to just over $102 million, with about $95.5 million spent so far. The project was paid for with federal and state dollars, according to WLRN, and Indian River County Metropolitan Planning Organization documents show that funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act helped move construction forward to 2023.

The early finish came partly through FDOT's voluntary acceleration program, which rewards contractors for completing work ahead of schedule, according to WPTV. "Opening this interchange one year ahead of schedule reflects this commitment and will bring major benefits to the Treasure Coast," Perdue said in the governor's release.

The Oslo Road project was not one of the 20 projects named in Moving Florida Forward, the DeSantis administration's multibillion-dollar initiative to speed up major road construction. WLRN reported that DeSantis said accelerating high-need projects in Central Florida, Tampa and Miami under that program helped move other projects, including the one in Indian River County, up the queue. State Sen. Erin Grall and state Rep. Robert Brackett, who represent the area, joined county officials at the event, according to TCPalm.

Growth on the Treasure Coast

The interchange arrives as the Treasure Coast continues to add residents. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put Indian River County's population at 172,799 as of July 1, 2025, up 8.1 percent since April 2020. Deaths outnumbered births in the county, but people moving in from elsewhere more than made up the difference. Neighboring St. Lucie County grew much faster, by about 22 percent over the same period, according to an analysis by CBS12.

TCPalm reported that the Oslo corridor west of I-95, roughly between 58th and 98th avenues, is an area local governments have identified for possible future growth, and county utilities are being extended there. A TCPalm opinion column argued that the interchange itself was sound but that poor planning around it could spur a growth problem in the rural western part of the county.

Part of a wider road-building push

The governor's office said the interchange is part of nearly $1 billion in transportation investments on the Treasure Coast. Elsewhere in the region, FDOT is widening Midway Road in St. Lucie County, and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is designing a new Midway Road interchange on the Turnpike in Port St. Lucie.

Farther south, Moving Florida Forward is funding two large interstate projects: the roughly $1.3 billion Southwest 10th Street Connector in Broward County, which began construction in August 2025 and is targeted for completion in 2032, and the roughly $1 billion rebuild of the Golden Glades Interchange in Miami-Dade County, which began in March 2024 and is targeted for fall 2031, according to WLRN.

The Oslo Road opening is the latest in a run of ribbon cuttings and announcements by DeSantis on transportation. In recent days he has touted a $20 billion plan to widen all 320 miles of Florida's Turnpike and celebrated the completion of a $61 million River Road widening in Sarasota County.

What's next

With the ramps open, drivers in southern Indian River County should be alert to the new traffic signal at Oslo Road and 66th Avenue and to the new ramp configuration as traffic shifts away from State Road 60 and Indrio Road. Across the county line, the Turnpike interchange at Midway Road remains in design.

For Indian River County, the bigger questions are longer term: how much development the new access will draw to the Oslo corridor, whether congestion at State Road 60 and Indrio Road eases as promised, and whether the emergency response gains officials projected show up in county response data. Those answers will shape how the county approaches the next round of growth decisions west of I-95.