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Today’s Entry: Submitted via the iHeart Talkback feature.
Bottom Line: I hear your frustration and understand. You’ll occasionally hear me joke that I love just about everything in South Florida this side of the traffic. On one hand, we have regular population growth and record tourism, thus road construction/expansion projects are regular to attempt to accommodate it. On the other hand, the ongoing construction only adds to the traffic headaches and confusion on our roads. And then there’s the toll consideration of many of these roads as well. The bottom line is this. A decade ago, the average commute time in South Florida was long and now it's worse. The average commute time in the TriCounty today is 29.6 minutes.
So yeah, it's not your imagination, on average it takes you 17% more time to make the same trip in South Florida today, compared to a decade ago. Although, believe it or not – South Florida’s not the worst in Florida. Osceola County has the worst average commute at 36 minutes per trip. In theory, the seemingly never-ending road projects are supposed to ease traffic congestion. If they are, we’re definitely not seeing the benefit of it. And when it comes to toll roads, not only am I not a fan but there are few things more frustrating than the times you use them only to realize it would have been quicker that day not to. So, about your concerns regarding transparency with South Florida’s road projects. While I don’t like them any more than you do...there's a lot of it.
The state hosts a website with comprehensive information about every major road project involving the Turnpike and another maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation for all other road projects. They break it down for every county into three different categories. PD&E Projects (study phase), Design Projects & Construction Projects, and Construction Projects. Each category gives you all of the background and status updates including contact information for officials in charge, the costs, and the entities contracted with to advance these projects.
In the TriCounty that’s a total of six major road construction projects that are in the process right now, another 21 behind them currently being designed, and five more behind those in the study phase – for the Turnpike alone. The reality is, for as annoying as the road construction has been and currently is... all signs suggest it’s going to be a whole lot worse in the future. That’s because there’s a whole lot more road construction within our communities.
With so many projects it's not plausible to break down the value of each of them without it being extremely tedious, however, included in the links in this story is direct information about the value of the contracts and the entities involved. What’s clear is that commute times continue to grow, as Florida’s population continues to grow, and the number of construction projects continues to grow to accommodate all of the growth. What’s also clear is that road construction has been a part of our lives, is a part of our lives and will continue to be part of our lives for the foreseeable. And yes, it’s also a multi-billion-dollar proposition in South Florida – so having the right people with proper oversight is important.
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