BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — A Brevard County road project to the beach is finally done more than 30 years later. The new Pineda Causeway extension from I-95 to the beach to Patrick Air Force base opened on Tuesday.
The project has been stopped and started multiple times over the years. Drivers have long sought the stretch, but some homeowners are worried about what comes next driving up the fresh pavement to the Pineda Causeway.
One driver after another said it was their new shortcut.
"It's good to have it open," said one driver. "It's going to save me a lot of time."
The overpass and on-ramps were added as part of a $196 million, I-95 widening project. The overpass was finished ahead of its construction schedule, but it took nearly four decades to get that point.
By comparison, it only took 14 years from conception to completion of California's Golden Gate Bridge.
Over the years, a subdivision was built in the causeway's path, and then the county fought railroad companies, and appeased churches and other businesses to get the road through.
Residents who live along the path wonder how much traffic is going to increase, how much noise that's going to generate, and whether children in their neighborhoods are still safe with few fences between their homes and the new road.
But Robert Southern said everyone in nearby neighborhoods knew the roadway was going to go in eventually and the new access is cutting significant travel time off their commutes.
The County Emergency Management Office said now should also alleviate some of the hurricane evacuation traffic on Wickham and other roads.