When you see new asphalt pavement being laid down on I-75 words like eco-friendly and green are probably the last thing that come to mind. A relatively new technology however allows iROX crews to add new shoulders to the interstate while having less of an impact on Mother Nature

Expanding I-75 from four to six lanes requires much more than tons and tons of asphalt.  More paved road means additional storm water runoff.  Constructing a system of pipes and culverts to carry that water away to the treatment ponds is a job just as vital to the success of iROX as building the new roadway and bridges.

Tucked away behind a row of bushes and trees in northern Collier County sits a body of water known in the iROX project as Pond A-H. The pond was constructed like 23 others along I-75 to hold storm water runoff from the highway.

iROX moved past the 30-month mark on April 29, 2010. Work is nearly complete over the entire 30 mile project from Golden Gate Parkway (exit #105) in Collier County to Colonial Boulevard (exit #136) in Lee County. The good news is that iROX is more than 300 days ahead of schedule.

Crews are working on the initial stages of the first section of new lanes for I-75. On January 27, 2008 crews placed the first 5,000 feet of asphalt along the existing southbound lanes just north of the Golden Gate Parkway overpass. Building of the two new lanes in the median started with a milling machine. The milling machine was used to grind away the asphalt on the inside shoulders leaving only the limerock base. Then workers used a road grader to strip the first six inches of topsoil in the median. The grader also scraped away the limerock along the shoulders spreading it across the median.