Palm Bay, Brevard County reach agreement to move forward with I-95 'ramp to nowhere'

PALM BAY, Fla. - The City of Palm Bay and Brevard County have agreed to work together to move forward with the project that was supposed to be completed nine months ago.  

It has been delay after delay for the $28 million "ramp to nowhere" at Exit 166 along Interstate 95, costing an additional $16 million, according to a state audit.  There is still a 98-foot gap of road leading up to the ramp that the City of Palm Bay never completed.  Now, thanks to what is known an interlocal agreement, or ILA, the road will soon be finished.

"A lot of the talk was about who was responsible for the road, who was going to own the intersection, what kind of safety elements you were going to have in the intersection," explained Palm Bay Councilman Brian Anderson. "That’s really what the ILA entailed, is getting that permit to finish that road and actually getting traffic on to the St. Johns Heritage Parkway."

The city is expecting that permit in the next five days, and then the final work will begin. Anderson said transportation impact fees will make it so this last bit of work comes at no cost to the taxpayers.  He hopes the ramp will open in about six weeks.