Wrong-way detection is going in at the I-75 and Daniels Parkway interchange, part of the $42.8 million rebuild running to summer 2028

The Florida Department of Transportation is installing wrong-way detection devices at the Interstate 75 interchange with Daniels Parkway in Lee County, Exit 131. The technology alerts a driver who has entered an exit ramp against the flow of traffic, and notifies traffic management officials at the same time so they can respond. Lauren Halpern reported the installation for WINK News.

The devices are one component of a larger reconstruction. FDOT lists the project at approximately $42.8 million and is converting the interchange to a diverging diamond design, work that also covers rebuilding the I-75 ramps, new signals at the ramps, pedestrian and bicycle accommodations through the interchange, and resurfacing of Daniels Parkway through the project area. The department's current status entry says crews are working on earthwork, underground drainage, drilled shaft removals, and installation of permanent lighting and wrong way detection, along with widening at the southbound off-ramp and Daniels Parkway. Completion is expected in summer 2028.

To install and test the detection equipment, FDOT announced closures of the southbound I-75 off-ramp at Daniels Parkway for three consecutive nights, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., Monday through Wednesday, with crews also working on striping. Drivers were directed to exit at Colonial Boulevard, Exit 136, or continue to Alico Road, Exit 128, and use local roads to reach Daniels Parkway. WINK reported those closures as happening that week, and FDOT's current advisory for the project lists no further specific ramp shutdown.

What the advisory does carry is a standing pattern. Motorists should anticipate lane closures on I-75 between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. and on Daniels Parkway between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. when the work requires them. Several traffic shifts are already in place, with westbound Daniels Parkway lanes moved slightly south and then back north, southbound off-ramp traffic shifted to the east, a reduced speed limit through the zone, and pedestrian access relocated to the south side of Daniels Parkway.

WINK framed the installation against two fatal wrong-way crashes on I-75 in Southwest Florida in recent weeks, one near Immokalee Road that killed a 96-year-old Naples man and one in Charlotte County that killed a 21-year-old woman. Those crashes are WINK's reporting and are not part of FDOT's project documentation, which describes the detection work as scheduled construction rather than a response to any particular collision.

The FDOT project page and its RoadWatch entry are public and linked here, and they are the source for the cost, the scope, the current work activities, the closure windows and the completion date. The three-night ramp closure comes from an FDOT press release as reported by WINK, which is credited above.