The state is spending about $8.5 million to add new restaurants and make upgrades at Florida Turnpike Service Plazas, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
He also teased that he would like to get rid of Turnpike tolls for state residents someday.
DeSantis made the remarks during a news conference in Orlando.
“We want to give families, residents, and visitors more options to stop, recharge, and enjoy their journeys,” DeSantis said as Jimmy John’s, Zaxby’s and other vendors will be coming. “We aim to please and we want to make it so that it’s really, really good.”
The state’s upgrades at 19 restaurants and retail locations will be spread across six service plazas, DeSantis said. Sixteen of them will be open this year.
DeSantis, who is term-limited and finishing his final months of office, also quipped that he was a fan of getting rid of the tolls on the Turnpike.
“We’re paying down all this debt, we’re cutting taxes, we’re doing all this. I’d love to be able to extinguish the tolls on the Turnpike,” DeSantis said.
“I know a lot of people would appreciate that. I would still want to charge the tourists, but just not the Florida residents.”
DeSantis said the state is investing more than $20 billion to widen the entire 320-mile Turnpike from South Florida through Central Florida to Interstate 75 in Wildwood.
“It was initially constructed as a four-lane corridor, and while some areas have been widened over time, they did not have a long-term expansion program until we challenged them to add capacity to every part of the main line,” DeSantis said.
“Since then, they’ve developed a long-term widening initiative that has accelerated projects and set a program for future investments to be made. This is all part of our long-term strategy to make sure the Turnpike can keep pace with Florida’s not just population growth, but continued tourism.”
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