Interstate 10 (I-10) runs for in Florida as the easternmost section of an east–west

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...

in the

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. It is also the eastern end of one of three coast-to-coast Interstates, along with I-80 and I-90. The highway runs east from the

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border, traveling through the Panhandle of Florida, serving the major cities of

Pensacola Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which ha ...

, Tallahassee, Lake City, ending at

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, and carries the hidden

Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the U.S. state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the power ...

(FDOT) designation of State Road 8 (SR 8).

Route description

The Interstate runs roughly parallel to US Highway 90 (US 90) (which intersects I-10 at five different points along its route), but is a more direct route, bypassing the central cores of many cities. I-10 runs through some of the least populated areas of the state. I-10 crosses into Florida at Alabama state line at the Perdido River, just west of Pensacola, in Escambia County. Florida State Road 297 (SR 297, southbound) at exit 7A, gives access to the

Pensacola Naval Air Station Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United Sta ...

and the National Museum of Naval Aviation. On the border between Brent and Ensley, the median approaching exits 10A and 10B becomes unexpectedly wide in order to accommodate flyover on-ramps from US 29 that enter the left sides of the road. At exit 12, I-10 serves as the northern terminus of I-110, a spur route to central Pensacola. The highway leaves the county at the Escambia Bay Bridge and has two interchanges within Santa Rosa County before crossing another bridge over the

Blackwater River A blackwater river is a type of River#Classification, river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. Most major blackwater rivers are in the Amazon Basin and the Southern United States. The term is used in fluvial ...

. After that bridge, it has two more interchanges with a pair of rest areas in between before crossing the Santa Rosa– Okaloosa county line. The road crosses the border between the Central and Eastern time zones at the long Dewey M. Johnson Bridge, over the

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately long, in the state of Florida. The river's large drainage basin, watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) River Basin, drains an area of approximately ...

. East of the bridge over the Ochlockonee River and the rest areas that follow, I-10 widens from four to six lanes and remains that way until after the interchange with SR 61 and US 319 in Tallahassee. Like at US 29 in Escambia County, the median for I-10 widens in the vicinity of

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end ...

at exits 296A and 296B, near Lake City, in order to accommodate flyover on-ramps that enter from the left sides of the road. A segment between exits 303 and 324 contains no interchanges because it passes through a portion of Osceola National Forest. The sole means of leaving and reentering the highway in this section is at a pair of rest areas, the easternmost rest areas along I-10. The road widens to six lanes again at the interchange with the First Coast Expressway. Just as I-75 did with I-10 in Columbia County, I-10's interchange with I-295 uses single ramps leading to both directions on I-295 with east-to-north and south-to-west flyover ramps leading to the median of I-295. US 17 overlaps I-10 for two exits before the eastern terminus of the Interstate, located in the

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neighborhood of Jacksonville's urban core at I-95.

History

Construction

Prior to the construction of I-10, US 90 was the main east–west highway across the state. The first section of I-10 in Florida was completed between Sanderson and

in 1961. Construction on points westward continued in 1962. The route between Sanderson and Winfield was completed in 1963. By 1967, construction had been completed from the Alabama state line to SR 87 and was under construction from Falmouth to

. New construction extending I-10 east from SR 87 to Mossy Head began in 1968. The Falmouth to I-75 segment opened in 1969. Construction began in 1970 further extending I-10 eastward from Mossy Head to DeFuniak Springs. New construction began in 1973 from DeFuniak Springs to Caryville and from Drifton to Capitola; the segment between Drifton and Falmouth opened that year. The Capitola–Drifton segment was completed the following year. Construction began between Caryville and Chipley in 1974, and from Chipley to Midway in 1975. The segment between Chipley and Midway was completed in 1977 except for a small portion between Kynesville and Oakdale; in 1978, the entire length of I-10, as well as the I-110 spur in

across the state opened along its original planned route. During the planning stage of construction, I-10 was placed just north of the central business district of Tallahassee, roughly along the current route of US 90 through town, while later a spur route was proposed to go to the core of the city. Both of these proposals were dropped and a route across the north side of the city was chosen. In 2008, the Interstate stretch in Tallahassee was expanded to six lanes to alleviate congestion. In 2002, I-10, along with most of Florida's Interstates, switched over from a sequential exit numbering system to a mileage-based exit numbering system.

Rest area security concerns

In 1993, a British tourist was killed at the Jefferson County rest area in a botched burglary by teens. As a result, Florida rest stops were either patrolled or closed for at least two years when lawmakers approved cutbacks. A number of rest areas are currently regularly patrolled at night by armed security, often private, due to a resurgence in rest area-related violent crime.

Hurricane Ivan

On September 16, 2004, Hurricane Ivan made landfall near Pensacola, with the resulting

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the ...

causing heavy damage to the I-10 bridge across Escambia Bay. As much as a quarter mile () of the bridge, consisting of 58 bridge segments, collapsed into the bay, and an additional 66 segments were knocked out of alignment; most of the damage was to the eastbound lanes. A $26.5 million project was awarded the following day to Gilbert Southern/Massman and to the

Parsons Corporation Parsons Corporation is an American multinational technology-focused defense, intelligence, and infrastructure engineering firm. Founded in 1944, Parsons is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, and serves both government and private sector orga ...

to make emergency repairs to the bridge. Work was completed on October 4 on the westbound bridge, restoring two-way traffic seven days ahead of schedule. The more heavily damaged eastbound bridge was completely repaired on November 20, just 66 days after Hurricane Ivan made landfall, and 27 days ahead of schedule. The contractor received $1.5 million in bonuses for the early completion. The commercial truck detour sent truck traffic into

and I-65 to avoid the bridges. The causeway that carries US 90 across the northern part of the same bay was also heavily damaged.

Exit list

References

External links

I-10 North Florida
(FDOT Construction Projects between Lake City and Jacksonville)
Interstate 10 Index -- Florida(AARoads.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:I10 in Florida

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...