Is flyover answer to U.S. 1 gridlock?
Radical redesign with roundabout considered at Lauderdale intersection
At the dizzying Gateway intersection in Fort Lauderdale, seven lanes of traffic come together from three directions.
Traffic experts think they have a better idea: a circle and a flyover.
Under a proposal inching forward in Broward County, the complicated intersection where Sunrise Boulevard and U.S. 1meet just west of the Middle River would be remade to remove the need for traffic signals and to reduce congestion. Drivers headed north on U.S. 1 would fly over the intersection, taking thousands of cars out of the equation. Everyone else would drive counterclockwise around a circle.
The radical remake has not been publicly vetted, but Fort Lauderdale elected officials agreed two weeks ago that the state Department of Transportation should study the concept. Thedepartment, along with regional traffic experts at the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, are focused anew on remaking existing intersections so they can carry more cars. The simple road-widening days in heavily developed Broward are largely over.
The newest ideas involve flyovers, tunnels, trenches and circles.
“I’m really excited by this. We’re going to, over the next five years, push an agenda that will deal with the traffic congestion,” said Greg Stuart, director of the transportation-planning Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Efforts to get people to ride public transit will go only so far, he said. Even if 6 percent of travelers used transit, which he saidwould be a great victory, that still leavesmore than 90percent of the people behind the wheel, he said.
“The good news is for the next 20 years, we’ll come up with solutions that will save our hide,” Stuart said. “It’ll allow development to continue and economic activity to continue.”
If the projects are a success, he said, other failing intersections could be redesigned: Pines Boulevard and Flamingo Road, University Drive just south of Interstate 595, Oakland Park Boulevard and Federal Highway, and Powerline Road and Oakland Park Boulevard. City, MPO and state officials already are talking about a dramatic makeover for Hollywood’s Young Circle, potentially adding an auto tunnel, removing traffic signals and allowing two-way traffic in the circle. A planned connector from Interstate 95 to the Sawgrass Expressway involves underground trenches and surface-level local traffic on10th Street in Deerfield Beach.
Projects that add car capacity are eligible for federal funds, Stuart said.
The Gateway intersection — dubbed that because of the Classic Gateway Theatre located there since 1951 — is often derided as delayprone and unsafe. On one online forum, a commenter called it “the absoluteworst intersection for a pedestrian to attempt to cross.” The state added to the complexitybymarkinglanes there as “sharrows,” indicating that bike riders can share the roadwayswith cars.
Even if it’s touted as a solution to gridlock, the concept is sure to draw strong opinions.
Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Dean Trantalis said he wasn’t even sure which road would fly over which, though he voted at a meeting July 11 to move it forward. In an email this week, he expressed skepticism, saying itwas literally “over the top” and an idea from the “ivory tower dreamscape brigade.”
“No one on the commission agreed to anything but to move the process forward to discuss ideas,” Trantalis said.
The resolution passed by commissioners expressly stated that the city supports the study, “with the understanding that the study will include the Gateway flyover concept and roundabout design proposed by FDOT.”
The clogged span of Sunrise Boulevard between the Searstown Shopping Plaza, which is just east of theFEC railroad tracks, and the Gateway Shopping Plaza has “heavy vehicle congestion” and long lines of cars throughout the day, state transportation department spokeswoman BarbaraKelleher said.
What cripples traffic flowthere, state transportation officials found, was the drivers from U.S. 1, which marries up with Sunrise Boulevard there. Those drivers make up for 44 percent of the 59,000 vehicles on that span each day, according to the state.
That’s not expected to lessen over the years. By 2040, the number of vehicles using that section of Sunrise Boulevard/U.S. 1 is expected to increase to 66,500.
Drivers using the triple left turn lanes to continue north on U.S. 1 at Gateway will experience “significant delays” if no changes are made, she said, because it wasn’t designed to handle that many vehicles.
Under what’s proposed, a flyover would carry drivers from eastbound to northbound U.S. 1, reducing congestion for everyone else at the intersection. The traffic signals where vehicles from all directions meetwould be removed in favor of a traffic circle, where drivers make right turns into the circular roadway and exit the roundabout at their connecting street. Broward has one prominent traffic circle, Hollywood’s Young Circle, which has its fans and detractors.
With the changes at Gateway, the state says, rush-hour delays could be reduced by 58 percent. With the elimination of Tbone accidents associated with traditional intersections, the state says, crashes could be reduced by 44 percent.
“Since the city has formally endorsed the project,” she said, the countywide Metropolitan Planning Organization will consider listing it as a priority. It would be eligible for study by the state next July, Stuart said. The project development and environment study takes about a year and a half, officials said.
At least threepublic hearings would be held — first a kickoff, then a presentation of alternatives and finally a forum onthe “preferred” alternative. If the state Department of Transportation considered the flyover and roundabout the best solution, another public hearing would be held to gather input, according to the resolution city officials approved.
The project cost has not been determined.
Kelleher said state transportation officials, in line with a trend at the Federal Highway Administration, have begun to “consider a wider range of alternatives” for intersections, and “it is now our standard practice to investigate several types of intersection control, including roundabouts.”