Interstate 95 - History

History

Portions of the highway have or used to have tolls. Many parts of I-95 were made up of various toll roads that had already been constructed or planned, particularly in the northeast. Many of these routes still exist today, but some have removed their tolls. Every current toll facility is compatible with the E-ZPass electronic payment system.

The toll roads utilized as part of I-95 formerly included the Florida's Turnpike and Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike (tolled until 1992). Today, I-95 comprises the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway, the Delaware Turnpike, the New Jersey Turnpike, the New England Thruway, the Connecticut Turnpike, the New Hampshire Turnpike, and the Maine Turnpike.

In Florida, the missing link was filled in 1987. Once the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project completes, the last remaining gap in New Jersey will be filled making I-95 continuous from Florida to Canada.

Many notable bridges and tunnels along I-95 were also tolled. The Fuller Warren Bridge spans the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida and was tolled until the 1980s and was replaced in 2002. The Fort McHenry Tunnel is underneath the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland and was opened in 1985 and completed. The George Washington Bridge carries I-95, US highways 1 and 9, and US 46 across the Hudson River between New Jersey and Upper Manhattan was opened in 1931.

A study that could lead to the imposition of tolls on I-95 in North Carolina is under way as of March 2010.

Between Richmond, Virginia and New Jersey are a few large projects that are helping to ease traffic along the corridor. The reconstruction of the Springfield Interchange in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, helped to ease traffic at the intersection of Interstate 95, Interstate 495, and Interstate 395, and surrounding interchanges. The Springfield Interchange is one of the busiest highway junctions on the East Coast, serving between 400,000 and 500,000 vehicles per day. With the exception of HOT lanes on the Capital Beltway (I-495/95), this project was completed in July 2007. A few miles to the east is another major project: the Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement. The bridge carries Interstates 95 and 495 over the Potomac River. The former Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which has since been demolished, was a six-lane bridge that was severely over-capacity. The new bridge is actually two bridges comprising a total of twelve lanes; five in each direction, with an additional lane in each direction for future use (rapid-bus or train). This project is nearly complete. The ten lanes opened on the December 13, 2008 greatly reducing the traffic delays on the beltway. The lanes are divided into two thru-lanes and three local lanes in each direction. About 30 miles north of the Wilson Bridge (and about 20 miles south of Baltimore) near the City of Laurel, a large new interchange is under construction as of 2008 and scheduled for completion in late 2011, which will connect I-95 to Maryland Route 200, the long-planned InterCounty Connector toll road.

Farther north in Pennsylvania, a project is underway at the intersection of I-95 and I-276. The Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project will construct an interchange between Interstate 95, Interstate 276, and once completed, Interstate 195, as I-95 will no longer go through Trenton, New Jersey (actually the townships of Hopewell, Lawrence and Ewing). This project will result in another toll being added to the route, that of the Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge over the Delaware River. The toll, much like the other crossings of the river, will be for traffic leaving New Jersey only (I-95 southbound). More critically, completion of this project will close the remaining gap in the route.

In 2006, the Virginia General Assembly passed SJ184, a resolution calling for an interstate compact to build a toll highway between Dover, Delaware and Charleston, South Carolina as an alternative to I-95 that would allow long-distance traffic to avoid the DC Metropolitan area.

Federal legislation has identified I-95 through Connecticut as High Priority Corridor 65. A long-term multibillion dollar program to upgrade the entire length of I-95 through Connecticut has been underway since the mid-1990s and is expected to continue through at least 2020. Several miles of the Connecticut Turnpike through Bridgeport were recently widened and brought up to Interstate standards. Work has shifted to reconstructing and widening 12 miles (19 km) of I-95 through New Haven, which includes replacing the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge. Environmental studies for reconstructing and widening 60 miles (95 km) of I-95 from New Haven to the Rhode Island state line are also progressing.

There are plans to expand the 1,054-mile (1,696 km) I-95 corridor from Petersburg, Virginia to Florida through a U.S. multi-state agreement to study how to improve the corridor through widening and reconstruction, with the goal of reducing congestion and improving overall safety for years to come.

Georgia and Florida continue to complete widening projects. Most of Interstate 95 through Georgia and south to Jacksonville, Florida has been upgraded to six lanes. The section from Jacksonville to the Interstate 4 junction in Daytona Beach was expanded to six lanes in 2005. As of 2009, widening projects continue in Brevard County from the SR 528 junction in Cocoa to Palm Bay, as well as in northern Palm Beach County.

In 2009, state legislators representing Maine's Aroostook County proposed using federal economic stimulus funds to extend Interstate 95 north to Maine's northernmost border community of Fort Kent via Caribou and Presque Isle. The proposed route would parallel New Brunswick's four-lane, limited access Trans-Canada Highway on the U.S. side of the Canada–United States border. Legislators argued that extension of the interstate would promote economic growth in the region.