Free Republic

A Florida man has pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. This comes after a traffic stop revealed a variety of weapons in the man’s vehicle. Basilio Amaury Bron, Jr. 43, Cape Coral, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. According to court documents, on March 12, 2022, at around 5:00 p.m., Bron was driving carelessly and more than 100 miles per hour northbound on Interstate 75 near the Laurel Road exit. A deputy from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office stopped Bron’s vehicle for speeding. The...

Lexington Police say six people were killed in a crash Saturday afternoon on Interstate 75. According to officials, the crash happened around 12:23 p.m. at the 104 mile marker. Lexington police say officers were dispatched to reports of a wrong way driver. Before officers arrived, a head-on collision occurred. Police say the driver of the wrong way vehicle, a 38-year-old woman, died at the scene. A child in the other car was also found dead. The 30-year-old driver of the second vehicle and three other children were taken to the hospital where they died of their injuries. The Fayette County...

WESLEY CHAPEL — Over the last several years, the developers of the Cypress Creek Town Center have spent $25 million for road improvements in the fast growing State Road 56 corridor near the Interstate 75 interchange. Other nearby businesses have also paid their share. But for those who traverse the area regularly, the months-long delays in promised improvements at that interchange, the so-called diverging diamond, have meant ongoing congestion with no end in sight. Pasco County Commission Chairman Mike Moore knows this well, since he travels the road daily. Prompted by a letter from merchants frustrated with road work delays,...

MT. VERNON, Ky. (WKYT) - There are more crashes on Interstate 75 than any other highway in Kentucky, and the number has increased significantly since 2010. Major work is being done on a stretch of the interstate highway to make it six lanes, especially in Rockcastle County. You will see orange cones and heavy machinery when you are driving in the area. "They're blasting all the time. Traffic is slowing. You got barrels, construction, vehicles coming in and out of locations. It's a dangerous stretch of road right now," Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington said. Statistics back that claim...

The small industrial buildings and blighted homes that once dotted the landscape of Detroit's Delray neighborhood are gone for good as demolition and site-cleaning work for the Gordie Howe International Bridge is in full swing this summer. The long-anticipated bridge construction project is starting to take shape on the Michigan side of the Detroit River, as cranes have been working along the riverfront in recent weeks. The cranes were drilling test shafts into the ground that will determine the final design of the new span and its towers rivaling Detroit's 73-story Renaissance Center, said Aaron Epstein, CEO of Bridging North...

FULL TITLE: 'My buddy's head's about gone': Heartbreaking 911 call after dad-of-four was fatally struck by rock thrown from overpass by teens is revealed as judge decides whether they'll be sentenced as juveniles or adults A Michigan court on Thursday heard the devastating 911 call made moments after a father-of-four was fatally struck by a rock which was dropped from an overpass and crashed through his windshield. Kenneth White was driving south along the the Interstate 75 with friend Stephen Anthor on October 18, 2017 when their van was struck by a rock thrown from the Dodge Road overpass by...

Driving north on Interstate 75 across the Mackinac Bridge into Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

BLUEFIELD — Extending the King Coal Highway’s “bridge to nowhere” in Bluefield to the Airport Road area is still on track for next year. Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer County, said the project remains on the Department of Highways six-year plan for a 2019 start. “Dirt should be moved next spring (2019),” he said. “It will be built when it is supposed to. It’s been part of the six-year plan and was not scheduled until next spring.” The bridge, which connects to Rt. 460 and then to Interstate 77, was finished almost 10 years ago but funding for the highway has...

Atlanta's traffic is legendary and the Georgia DOT says the increase in truck traffic needs to be addressed. Because the Port of Savannah and the Panama Canal have been deepened, more freight is coming in which translates to more semi-trucks traveling in and out of the Atlanta hub. GDOT estimates trucks carry 75 percent of the freight in Georgia and expects truck traffic to double by 2040.GDOT is in the early stages of planning the I-75 Commercial Vehicle Lanes project. The interstate will stretch from metro Atlanta 40 miles south to Macon. GDOT Operations Director John Hibbard says it would...

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - The largest road construction project in state history is nearing completion, and relief for commuters is almost here. Georgia's Department of Transportation program manager for the project told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach even after delays for weather and after the I-85 collapse, the new 75 express lanes should open by the end of summer. “It’s the longest land bridge in the state of Georgia," program manager for the project, Stephen Lively said. Northern sections above the 75-575 split and through Marietta are mostly complete, including one 6,000-foot raised section. Lively said the goal is to have...

After exploring other options, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released study findings Tuesday "confirming the need for a second bridge to carry Interstate 71/75 traffic across the Ohio River." A yearlong study "confirms the need for construction of a new bridge across the Ohio River to improve safety and travel on Interstate 71 and Interstate 75 between Ohio and Kentucky," a news release from the KYTC said. The news release cited the findings of the Brent Spence Strategic Corridor Study, which was led by the consulting firm Stantec. The best solution to "ease congestion and improve travel" is to build a...

VALDOSTA – Any driver who's hit a deer or spotted one standing on the shoulder of the road should appreciate the new fencing along portions of Interstate 75. Old fence with a height of four or five feet has being replaced with eight-foot game fence in various locations in Crisp, Turner, Tift and Lowndes counties through small Georgia Department of Transportation maintenance service contracts, according to a DOT press release. Fence replacement just concluded in Lowndes County and must be inspected by the department. The other counties are complete. Contractors were also asked to use wire to fill in bottom...

Troopers said Ronnie Jackson, 67, had failed to lower the truck’s bed after leaving a construction zone. A dump truck driver was cited for careless driving Wednesday after he failed to lower the bed of his truck and it hit an overpass on Interstate 75 in Gainesville. Ronnie Jackson, 67, of Lake City, was cited after the accident, which occurred at 12:45 a.m. in the northbound lanes around Mile Marker 385, according to a Florida Highway Patrol media release. The truck overturned and the bed came off after hitting the Southwest 20th Avenue bridge. Troopers said Jackson had failed to...

The parents of a medical school student killed in a 2015 Pembroke Pines crash were awarded $45 million in damages. After a three-week trial that concluded Thursday, jurors awarded Jennifer and Reginald Astaphan damages in connection with the death of their 29-year-old son, Jonathan Raymond Astaphan, of Dominica. Ranger Construction Industries, of West Palm Beach, was ordered to pay $35 million in damages; Juan Calero, the driver of the tractor-trailer in the chain-reaction crash, was ordered to pay an additional $10,005,000. Astaphan was killed May 28, 2015, along Interstate 75 near Pines Boulevard as he crossed paths with a flatbed...

Dive Brief: The Michigan Department of Transportation announced it will take on private-sector partners to finish a $1 billion state highway modernization project in Oakland County, MI. Using the public-private partnership (P3) model to design, build, finance and maintain the remainder of the project, rather than waiting on public funds to become available, could shorten the construction schedule by up to a decade, The Detroit News reported. MDOT will issue requests for qualifications from potential private partners before the end of the year, and it anticipates the selection process will wrap up in the summer and fall of 2018. The...

TAMPA — Hillsborough County leaders voted Tuesday to move forward with a plan to add 90 miles of toll lanes to Tampa Bay's interstates despite continued opposition from the people whose neighborhoods would be impacted the most by the project. The Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization — a 16-person board which approves transportation projects — listened to more than 3½- hours of public comment on its Transportation Improvement Program, which lists the county's priorities for the next five years. The TIP includes dozens of projects, from road maintenance to bike paths. But the evening's debate centered around only one project:...

The Michigan Department of Transportation has begun work on a vehicle-to-infrastructure communications project, in which 3M will provide lane markings, smart sign technology and dedicated short-range communication devices for a three-mile stretch of I-75, according to a report from ITS International. Once these items are installed, the Oakland County stretch of highway will allow the testing of advanced vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. The construction project is expected to take about four months to finish.Michigan is emerging as one of the leaders in V2I and vehicle-to-vehicle communications research and adoption. V2I communications involve the wireless exchange of critical safety and operational data between vehicles...

CINCINNATI - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will highlight in downtown Cincinnati this morning key infrastruture projects, such as the Brent Spence Bridge, as he outlines a framework to rebuild and repair the country’s infrastructure which will create millions of construction jobs. The northern Ohio Senator will be joined by Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority President and CEO Laura Brunner, and OKI Regional Council of Governments Deputy Executive DirectorRobert Koehler. President Donald Trump previously promised $1 trillion of investment in American infrastructure during his campaign. Brown joined Senate colleagues to release a roadmap for making...

BROOKSVILLE (FOX 13) - Some neighbors in Hernando County have had it with the noise. They say all-night construction on I-75 is keeping them awake, even shaking their homes. It's all related to a 6.5-mile, $95 million FDOT project that started last summer. Crews are currently widening Interstate 75 from four to six lanes, starting south of State Road 50 and finishing at the Hernando/Sumter County line. Lauretta Clemons, who lives on Shadywood Lane in Brooksville, remembers her backyard 30 years ago. "Beautiful," Clemons said. "Trees, ferns, flowers, birds and wild animals." Now, the trees are gone and she and...

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. - The Interstate 75 express lanes construction project has created a 10-mile stretch of road that is ripe with hazards. "We believe we have had an increase in some crashes," Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky said. "We have had several people that have been seriously injured from debris." Earlier this week, Jessica Gabe was hit by a large rock, but amazingly she wasn't hurt. "A car hit a big boulder in the middle of the road, split it in two and half of the boulder came through my windshield and hit me," Gabe said. "Next thing...