I-75 plans prioritize efficiency, safety while keeping up with growth

In the face of explosive population growth and the constant flow of tourism, moving people efficiently is mission critical to the Florida Department of Transportation. 

More than that, the agency is seeks to minimize conflict points and, where they exist, design them in a manner that reduces the severity of crashes.

Wayne Gaither, director of the FDOT District One Southwest Area Office, delivered that message during the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce State of the Community event last week.

“Communities are in the center of what we are working toward,” Gaither said. “We work to be good neighbors. There is no one-size-fits-all as we are working through our projects. What works in one area certainly does not work in another and may not be the vision and the goals that the communities are looking for, so we are working with the communities through various methods to gather an understanding of what it is you want and then promoting the transportation needs for specific communities.”

That involves working closely with metropolitan planning organizations and at the city and county levels with an eye toward reducing serious injuries and fatalities on the state’s roadways. 

“That’s a tough row to hoe to try to move the needle on, and it's not something that has been happening as efficiently as quickly as we would hope,” he said.

Gaither addressed the following topics during his message to chamber members.

On the supply chain for highway projects:

It's not a surprise to anyone here that it is difficult getting the materials necessary to keep projects moving forward. Transportation has also felt these issues to the point that project costs have increased dramatically and to the point that projects have been delayed because we have not been able to get the raw materials to keep the project moving on the construction schedule. 

On keeping up with growth:

We've discovered through a lot of communication with the communities that the transportation networks are a huge issue for making sure that folks can get to and from work on a reliable schedule. That's been a tough thing with the growth that’s taking place here. Transportation networks, roadways across the board have all taken a huge hit as far as the reliability of the timing that you can expect to get from point A to point B.

On growth in FDOT District 1:

Florida is one of 11 mega regions. These regions account for more than 70% of the nation's population and jobs. In District 1, population growth has been outpacing the rest of Florida, but also been outpacing the growth patterns of a lot of other areas across the United States. Typically when we work on our projects, we plan for a growth percentage of 2% to 3%, and in several areas, we're noticing that growth is at 20% to 30%. That's a tough number to try to keep up with, especially considering the timeline that it takes for projects to move through. From the point of conception of an idea of a project through getting a project completed is about 10 years. That's if things are running smoothly. We are finding things have not been running smoothly on a lot of projects.

On the work at the interchange of I-75 and Clark Road:

This is a project that is going to improve safety by adding capacity along I-75. It's going to address the lane overflow, which is where people are getting off the interstate to get onto the off ramps and it bleeds back onto the interstate. It's not a safe use of the interstate. We're going to convert the ramp into a diverging diamond, and the benefit of the diverging diamond is it provides a more efficient flow of traffic off of the interstate. We've certainly thought outside the box on some of the projects where we're addressing congestion and promoting efficiency for roadway network and for promoting safety. 

On how growth patterns are affecting highway planning:

What we're noticing is recent residential, commercial and industrial types of developments in District 1 are being organized along the I-4 and I-75 corridors, and 80.2% of the population and 84% of the trade industry jobs are within 10 miles of either of the interstates or expressways. Sarasota and Manatee counties are expected to combine with a population of over one million by 2035.

On the planned new interchange at I-75 and Fruitville Road:

It will change the interchange from a partial cloverleaf design to a diverging diamond, and we're finding that is an extremely effective treatment especially at some of the higher-traveled interchanges. District 1 will also be widening about 2 miles of I-75 between Palmer Boulevard to north of Fruitville Road. This is an effort for a current project to fit in with our managed lane study that we know is coming down the road. What we don't want to do is have a lot of throwaway on existing projects and we also don't want to put ourselves in a position to where we under-design or under-build a section of road, and then end up having to back and try to address it later on.