Nearly $53M Clark Road interchange, beautification project completed

Following years of construction, a more than $50 million project to improve the Clark Road interchange at Interstate 75 has been completed. State and local officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at nearby Twin Lakes Park Friday to mark its completion and the beautification effort that accompanied it. 

The eight-lane diverging diamond interchange at Clark Road was designed to improve highway operations, safety and regional mobility, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. A diverging diamond shifts traffic to the opposite side of the roadway before shifting back to the right. State transportation officials say the cost of the Clark Road interchange construction project was $52.6 million.

Crews also added auxiliary lanes on I-75 and made improvements to Clark Road as part of the project. On and off ramps were reconstructed. New mast arms were added for the signal at Catamaran Drive, and a new signal was installed at Queensbury Boulevard. Noise barrier walls, buffered bike lanes and sidewalks were installed, and personnel resurfaced existing pavement. 

In addition to infrastructure improvements to the road, crews installed more than 3,600 plants and trees to the area for beautification and long-term environmental sustainability, according to a statement. Royal palms, saw palmettos, cabbage palms, crape myrtles, royal poincianas and European fan palms are among the new vegetation in the area.

State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who is also Chairman of the Republican National Committee, attended the event and noted he encouraged FDOT for six years to make improvements.

"I said, for two months out of the year, we should make Sarasota have color. We should have these blooming trees, and so people know exactly where they are when they're driving around," Gruters said. "Hopefully, this is the first of many interchanges where we're going to have all these wonderful trees to celebrate what people love about our community."

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Completion of the Clark Road interchange and its beautification come nearly a decade after another diverging diamond opened in the Sarasota-Mamatee area. A diverging diamond interchange became operational on University Parkway at I-75 in 2017. It cost $75.3 million to build and was the first diverging diamond in the state, according to FDOT, which says it is among the busiest in the U.S.

Sarasota Observer reporter Andrew Warfield contributed to this article.