-
Tree Clearing Begins at Pioneer Trail Interchange Site
As of August 8, 2025, total site clearing (trees, underbrush, everything) has begun, and it appears that the entire southeastern quadrant has been stripped bare, leaving nothing but downed logs, rich black soil, and scattered lakes of water. The prep work for this clearing began when trucks from the clearing companies (P&S Paving and Rogers…
-
SJRWMD overrides Judge’s ruling and grants Interchange Permit; Citizens plan to appeal
In a possibly never-before-seen action, the Board of the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) heard over a dozen citizens speak out against the disastrous and costly I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange at their monthly meeting on March 12, 2024 in Palatka, FL, and by making no motion to approve or deny it, by default allowed…
-
Local Residents Prevail! Judge rules against Pioneer Interchange permit!
It is our pleasure to inform you that on Monday, January 29, 2024, the Administrative Law Judge reviewing the state case against the St. Johns River Water Management District’s issuance of a permit for the destructive and costly Pioneer Trail Interchange recommended DENIAL of the Permit! This is big news, and a big win for all Floridians! In…
-
We made the News-Journal Sunday Paper Front Page
In case you missed it recently, our fight to stop the terrible I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange got Front Page coverage in the Daytona Beach News-Journal on Sunday, July 30, 2023! That was great news, and we hope to keep the momentum going! The article actually came out online a few days earlier, authored by Mark Harper,…
-
Washington Post Article Highlights Problems with Pioneer Trail Interchange
At the end of June 2023, the award-winning newspaper the Washington Post ran a thorough and detailed story on the sinister origins and environmental damage of the I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange. You can read the full article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/28/desantis-hosseini-interstate-covid-money/ DeSantis agency sent $92 million in covid relief funds to donor-backed project Vehicles travel along Interstate 95…
-
2024 Candidate Positions* on the I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange
*as well as archived statements from 2022; these are the verbatim responses to emails requesting the candidates position on the I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange. The 2024 positions were updated August 8, 2024, and 2022 Primary Candidate Position Statements on the Interchange were updated November 6, 2022. Please send any updates or statements to savedontpavesprucecreek@gmail.com to be…
-
Dear Permitting Agencies and Elected Public Officials
I have concerns over a large and wasteful government project in our area and wanted to share my thoughts. $80+ million dollars of tax-payer money (mostly from a stimulus bill from last year) are being used to revive an ecologically-devastating, and widely-unpopular project known as the I-95 Interchange/Pioneer Trail project, located in east central Florida next to New Smyrna…
-
The Impact of an Interchange on Spruce Creek
Building an interchange at I-95 and Pioneer Trail will have a devastating affect on the quality and sustainability of the Creek, the neighboring Preserve, the New Smyrna Beach and Port Orange communities. While the Interchange won’t actually be built OVER Spruce Creek, its construction will exacerbate pollution into the watershed area which runs into the…
-
How We Got Here
In 2018, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) released this map of the I-95 at Pioneer Trail Study Area. Fast forward to 2020, and even as recently as the January 2022 Environmental Report to the St. John’s River Water Management District (SJWRMD), the map looked like this (which was shared with federal agencies.) And, in…
-
What Citizens Are Saying
Hundreds of concerned citizens expressed their outrage at the I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange at public meetings and many are reflected as part of the permitting documentation on the St. Johns River Water Management District website. You can see a sampling here, add your own comment to the SJRWMD site, and comment in our comments section below.…