Location Transport

How Department of Transportation decide to expand road?

The hwy I-275 and I-75 in Tampa was 3 lanes each way. After 3 years of constructions, they hwy do not have any additional lanes. What they did was fixing the shoulder lanes and resurface the roadway. I think they the hwy need at least 5 lanes each way. I drive 20 miles to work takes me 1hr 15 minutes. At downtown tampa, hwy I-275 has 2 lanes, hwy I-4 has 2 lanes, they merge together and become a 3 lanes. It takes you 15 minutes just to get pass this couple miles of merging. What the hhellll are they thinking? why they spent so much time and money just working on the shoulder lanes? Are they all stuuupiid iidioots woring for Florida Department of Transportations?

Public Comments

1. Sometimes maintenance is what is needed. Expansion costs too much. Road surfaces can cost $1 million per mile. If they can improve the roadway and the traffic flow, it could cost less money and please the people. I just don't know if that is what happened.
2. Each state has high priority projects that receive funding ahead of any other projects. FL feels that traffic on the I-4 corridor does not justify expansion. As the previous poster stated - expanding highways only contributes to more traffic in delays. Look at Atlanta and Charlotte - both cities are still stewing in traffic and they received new roads in the last 10 years.
3. You need to think like a transportation planner -- you see, they have to determine YEARS in advance how the traffic will grow and change. First, a traffic study must occur. They measure the number of cars, the traffic patterns, and the alternative transportation methods out there. So, say they decide after a year-long study to add 1 lane. In order to add a lane, the engineers have to determine the best method of meeting road beds and supporting the weight of the future traffic, like semi-trailers. Then, the bid must go out. Negotiations happen, funding is found. It must be budgeted time-wise with the contractor, who was already working on other projects in the interim. The road begins construction -- maybe a 10 mile stretch takes 2 years (I'm being kind here - no construction or funding delays and the inspectors show up the minute they call them for inspection of each phase). We are now 5-6 years down the road from beginning to end. How does the transportation planner know and understand where the traffic will be in order to "predict" the roads needed? They can't, not with 100% accuracy. A planner will be fired if he so much as misses on 1 project -- imagine a 4 lane highway that only needs 1 lane -- the public will be up in arms over that waste of money. So traffic planners exist in time deficit. They wait (and the public demands they do, or the project won't be funded) until there is a clear and present need for the change. You will find, should you ask Florida DOT, that your section of roadway is already in the works Yes, they have noticed. However, there is a 5-10 year delay between a clear and present need for change and the arrival of said change. Further, somewhere along the way, the adding lanes idea may change. Perhaps instead they decide to expand rail service or create a bus line, to help the travelers. Maybe they are planning a different route and are buying its land, to divert traffic away from the heavy spot and get it where its going a little faster. You never know, but I can guarantee you that 1) you will always be mad because the traffic inconveniences you; 2) they really don't care about that; 3) much more juggling is going on behind the scenes than you will ever know, and 4) they aren't idiots. Instead, the folks are engineers and budget experts who have the very difficult job of working in a field in which so many things are needed, but few funds are alotted, all the while many people are shouting to just get it done now.