Four lanes of traffic will continue to remain open in the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 under the Florida Highway Patrol’s Emergency Shoulder Use program which allows motorists to drive on the inside shoulder lane of the freeway.
The plan was implemented Monday and will continue Tuesday and Wednesday to move evacuees from South Florida fleeing the path of Hurricane Milton. Motorists were allowed to drive on the inside shoulder of the northbound lane, next to the guardrail, to speed along traffic flow.
The southbound lanes of I-75 never closed and will remain open, according to FHP officials.
“Southbound I-75 is open,” said Capt. Mike Burroughs, FHP spokesman from the Lake City district office. “We cannot say this enough.”
Burroughs said the right shoulder of the interstate remained an emergency lane for emergency vehicles to respond to crashes or stalled vehicles, which were many overnight Monday and into early Tuesday.
“Some of these motorists are families with pets and carrying everything they own,” Burroughs said. “FDOT is assisting us with moving these vehicles out of the emergency lanes and with moving these families to safety.”
Burroughs said if people need to travel nearby in Columbia County or the North Florida region, find an alternate route besides the freeway.
“If you can avoid I-75, that would be the smart thing to do,” Burroughs said.
The emergency lane use option runs north all the way to the Interstate 10 intersection in Columbia County, but Burroughs said motorists headed north were ignoring it and continuing to use the inside shoulder as a regular lane at highway speeds through Suwannee and Hamilton Counties all the way to the Georgia state line.
In other areas, he said U.S. Highway 19, a four-lane through the Nature Coast was open, but moving slowly, as it was seeing a lot of cars broken down causing traffic snags as people were leaving the Tampa Bay area and heading north toward the Interstate 10 corridor and the Tallahassee area. Some had mechanical issues, while others ran out of fuel.