Florida

[formulanone]

Is this the southbound I-95 rest areas in Martin County?

Or the northbound one?

It was southbound as I was heading home from Starke.

I'd forgotten about that photo, honestly. It was my wallpaper on a work PC many years ago.

[ElishaGOtis]

You can barely see it completed 99% in this super-congested GSV (although it wasn't open then, now it is), but the first of (I think) 7 auxiliary lanes has been opened on I-75 in Ocala. This one is between SR-40 (Exit 352) and US-27/SR-500 (Exit 354).

This set of Moving Florida Forward projects puts a bunch of aux lanes on I-75 between Turnpike and SR-326, fiddles with a couple interchange configurations, and puts a new DDI interchange between US-27 and SR-326. Wishing the new interchange was a double-roundabout like Georgia SR-99 but I guess this works?

[roadman65]

You can barely see it completed 99% in this super-congested GSV (although it wasn't open then, now it is), but the first of (I think) 7 auxiliary lanes has been opened on I-75 in Ocala. This one is between SR-40 (Exit 352) and US-27/SR-500 (Exit 354).

This set of Moving Florida Forward projects puts a bunch of aux lanes on I-75 between Turnpike and SR-326, fiddles with a couple interchange configurations, and puts a new DDI interchange between US-27 and SR-326. Wishing the new interchange was a double-roundabout like Georgia SR-99 but I guess this works? 🤷�♂️

Oh jeez, this new Bucees Interchange is another DDI.    Good 😔 grief like 39 isn't enough in our state.

[D-Dey65]

Is this the southbound I-95 rest areas in Martin County?

Or the northbound one?

It was southbound as I was heading home from Starke.

I'd forgotten about that photo, honestly. It was my wallpaper on a work PC many years ago.

Thanks. Now there are six more rest areas on I-95 to make galleries for, and four are in Brevard County.

[Max Rockatansky]

Is this the southbound I-95 rest areas in Martin County?

Or the northbound one?

It was southbound as I was heading home from Starke.

I'd forgotten about that photo, honestly. It was my wallpaper on a work PC many years ago.

Thanks. Now there are six more rest areas on I-95 to make galleries for, and four are in Brevard County.

There are photo galleries for Florida rest areas?

[D-Dey65]

You can barely see it completed 99% in this super-congested GSV (although it wasn't open then, now it is), but the first of (I think) 7 auxiliary lanes has been opened on I-75 in Ocala. This one is between SR-40 (Exit 352) and US-27/SR-500 (Exit 354).

This set of Moving Florida Forward projects puts a bunch of aux lanes on I-75 between Turnpike and SR-326, fiddles with a couple interchange configurations, and puts a new DDI interchange between US-27 and SR-326. Wishing the new interchange was a double-roundabout like Georgia SR-99 but I guess this works? 🤷�♂️

Oh jeez, this new Bucees Interchange is another DDI.   Good 😔 grief like 39 isn't enough in our state.

They'd still be better off with splitting local and express lanes. The same goes for I-4 east of Polk City.

[ElishaGOtis]

You can barely see it completed 99% in this super-congested GSV (although it wasn't open then, now it is), but the first of (I think) 7 auxiliary lanes has been opened on I-75 in Ocala. This one is between SR-40 (Exit 352) and US-27/SR-500 (Exit 354).

This set of Moving Florida Forward projects puts a bunch of aux lanes on I-75 between Turnpike and SR-326, fiddles with a couple interchange configurations, and puts a new DDI interchange between US-27 and SR-326. Wishing the new interchange was a double-roundabout like Georgia SR-99 but I guess this works? 🤷�♂️

Oh jeez, this new Bucees Interchange is another DDI.   Good 😔 grief like 39 isn't enough in our state.

They'd still be better off with splitting local and express lanes. The same goes for I-4 east of Polk City.

That I think is the long term plan. There is such a project being considered for the mid-2030s in Gainesville of all places.

[pianocello]

They'd still be better off with splitting local and express lanes. The same goes for I-4 east of Polk City.

That I think is the long term plan. There is such a project being considered for the mid-2030s in Gainesville of all places.

That seems backwards, I-75 is angled in the wrong direction to be useful for most local traffic in Gainesville. They should have put the aux lanes in there, and gone straight to the express-local setup in Ocala instead.

[skatcher]

This set of Moving Florida Forward projects puts a bunch of aux lanes on I-75 between Turnpike and SR-326, fiddles with a couple interchange configurations, and puts a new DDI interchange between US-27 and SR-326. Wishing the new interchange was a double-roundabout like Georgia SR-99 but I guess this works?

With the amount of truck traffic using this interchange (3 truck stops, plus it is the primary movement for trucks going between the Gulf coast and JAX) a double-roundabout would make traffic exponentially worse than it already is going through there. I always end up taking US 27 instead of FL 326 to cut over to US 301 because of the amount of truck traffic taking FL 326. The DDI sounds like a great alternative and should alleviate a lot of the slowdowns in the area.

[skatcher]

You can barely see it completed 99% in this super-congested GSV (although it wasn't open then, now it is), but the first of (I think) 7 auxiliary lanes has been opened on I-75 in Ocala. This one is between SR-40 (Exit 352) and US-27/SR-500 (Exit 354).

This set of Moving Florida Forward projects puts a bunch of aux lanes on I-75 between Turnpike and SR-326, fiddles with a couple interchange configurations, and puts a new DDI interchange between US-27 and SR-326. Wishing the new interchange was a double-roundabout like Georgia SR-99 but I guess this works? 🤷�♂️

Oh jeez, this new Bucees Interchange is another DDI.   Good 😔 grief like 39 isn't enough in our state.

They'd still be better off with splitting local and express lanes. The same goes for I-4 east of Polk City.

That I think is the long term plan. There is such a project being considered for the mid-2030s in Gainesville of all places.

Instead of local/express configurations, I wish more DOTs would study the NJ Turnpike and realize that Cars Only & Cars, Trucks, Busses lanes provide better throughput for ALL vehicles.

[D-Dey65]

Instead of local/express configurations, I wish more DOTs would study the NJ Turnpike and realize that Cars Only & Cars, Trucks, Busses lanes provide better throughput for ALL vehicles.

I don't think so. I say it should be local and express lanes. The only reason I can think of separate truck lanes being used in Gainesville is the presence of the truck routes for SRs 24 and 26. For Gainesville, I want to see an excuse to use the extra northbound ROW at SR 222, which to me would mean an east to north loop ramp. In the case of I-81 in Virginia though, such an arrangement would be a good idea. It's just an issue over how many state lines such a project should cross.

There are photo galleries for Florida rest areas?

In Wikimedia Commons? Hell yeah!

[1995hoo]

I could see separated lanes for trucks and buses being useful, though exceptionally expensive to construct, on roads traversing mountainous terrain (and I'd include D-Dey65's example of most of I-81 in Virginia within that category). "Climbing lanes" are certainly better than nothing, but full separation might be even more effective in keeping traffic moving. Perhaps, unlike in New Jersey, it would make sense in those situations to designate the truck/bus lanes as "no cars." I've seen car drivers do a lot of exceptionally dumb things near trucks on mountainous Interstates, such as (but not limited to) pulling in way too closely in front of them on downhill grades. (Whereas on the Jersey Turnpike I normally used the "Cars/Trucks/Buses" lanes instead of "Cars Only" because I found they tended to be more reliable, perhaps because the trucks and buses were banned from the left lane. I haven't driven on that road in quite some time, though, hence why I used past tense in that last sentence.)

Obviously the use of separate lanes would require that a road have some significant distance in mountainous terrain. It likely wouldn't make sense for a mere five or ten miles, for example.

[Beltway]

https://www.cfxway.com/master-plan/

CFX's 2045 Master Plan map shows several long "future expressway" corridors, but most are conceptual only. They have no funding, no PD&E studies, no ROW acquisition, and do not appear in CFX's 5‑year Work Program. They also do not match FDOT's SIS Cost Feasible Plan, meaning the state is not planning or funding them. Likewise, MetroPlan Orlando's LRTP excludes nearly all of these corridors from its Cost Feasible list and often even from its Needs Plan. As a result, these routes are not coordinated, not programmed, and not advancing -- they are long‑range ideas rather than real projects.

Maps look impressive but it is a wish list. Brevard Country opposes any new toll highways in the county, and there are 3 CFX corridors that would go there. Also a turnpike extension from Kenansville to the barrier island a couple miles north of Sebastain Inlet. Pipe dreams.

The extension of the FL-408 East-West Expressway 4 miles east is a logical project though.

[Max Rockatansky]

Instead of local/express configurations, I wish more DOTs would study the NJ Turnpike and realize that Cars Only & Cars, Trucks, Busses lanes provide better throughput for ALL vehicles.

I don't think so. I say it should be local and express lanes. The only reason I can think of separate truck lanes being used in Gainesville is the presence of the truck routes for SRs 24 and 26. For Gainesville, I want to see an excuse to use the extra northbound ROW at SR 222, which to me would mean an east to north loop ramp. In the case of I-81 in Virginia though, such an arrangement would be a good idea. It's just an issue over how many state lines such a project should cross.

There are photo galleries for Florida rest areas?

In Wikimedia Commons? Hell yeah!

Ah, that would be why I'm just learning of this.  I have photos of some of the Florida rest area historical plaques.  I didn't think there was a market for them along with the entire restroom facilities. 

[Great Lakes Roads]

State toll board kills Miami-Dade's Kendall Parkway for a shorter 836 extension

[The Ghostbuster]

Did the Kendall Parkway need to be constructed, or was it overkill for its proposed corridor?

[Beltway]

Did the Kendall Parkway need to be constructed, or was it overkill for its proposed corridor?

The 14 mile alternative of the Kendall Parkway wasn't killed because the corridor lacked traffic; the projected 35,000-50,000 AADT can warrant a 4-lane freeway.

It was killed because it required 5 to 7 miles of bridge‑type viaduct through wetlands and wellfield zones -- a $3 billion cost completely out of proportion to the demand. A 4 mile shorter alternative is still in consideration.