Sawgrass Interchange

The Sawgrass Interchange is a large highway interchange in Sunrise, Florida, United States.

History
The Sawgrass Interchange was built between 1986 and 1989. The interchange opened in late 1989. The interchange was constructed at a cost of $52 million (1989 USD). At the time of its opening, the interchange was the largest in Florida.

In 2023, there was widespread concern when a social media post, which erroneously claimed that one of the interchange's bridges was structurally unsound because of a visible gap, went viral. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) inspected the bridge and found no structural defects; the "gap" was normal and intentionally constructed when the bridge was built in the 1980s, being the location of one of the bridge's expansion joints.

Description
The Sawgrass Interchange is a large stack interchange. It serves as the junction point for three major expressways in South Florida: Interstate 75 (I-75), I-595 (the Port Everglades Expressway), and State Road 869 (SR 869, Sawgrass Expressway). SR 84 also travels through the interchange.

The interchange also serves as both the western terminus I-595 and the southern terminus of SR 869, both of which merge into I-75. It also serves as the eastern terminus of Alligator Alley.

Design
The Sawgrass Interchange consists of several bridges and 70 bridge spans—all of which are made of precast segmental concrete; the bridge spans range from 120 to 200 ft and were constructed with 1,366 precast box girder segments. The stack interchange occupies an area of approximately 550 acre.