I-595 Closure Impacts Area Businesses

DAVIE (CBSMiami) – The closure of the normally busy intersection of University Drive and I-595 in Davie for 24 hours for road work on the highway has many business owners in the area worried.

At a Papa John's located in a shopping plaza at the intersection, time is money and their worried that the closure will cost them a lot of money.

"Delivery wise it's going be very, very difficult for us to get to the customers on the north side of I-595," said Papa John's manager Dan King. "We're expecting to let them know it's going to be roughly an hour all day long."

The closure will last until approximately 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. King said he's been dreading this.

"It's going to be difficult but we just have to pull through it do what we got to do and hope for the best," said King.

At Planet Smoothie in the same shopping center they decided to avoid the hassle and just close on Sunday.

The closure was needed so workers could raise a five million pound flyover which connects southbound University Drive to eastbound I-595 approximately 18 inches for better vertical clearance for taller trucks.

"It will be a slow process, an inch an hour, to lift it slowly so we don't damage the ramp, that's why we have a 24 hour closure," said I-595 construction manager Paul Lampley.

The flyover project is simply one part of FDOT's I-595 Express Corridor Improvements Project, a $1.8 billion makeover to the main east-west corridor through Central Broward County.