New DDI pattern expected to cut 90 seconds off each trip

Kevin Ingle, a Florida Department of Transportation project engineer, seemed to enjoy playing with the toy cars.

Ingle was pushing around a Hot Wheels car, rolling it across a roughly 6-foot long printout of the diverging diamond interchange to illustrate his points during a public workshop April 4 at Everglades University in Lakewood Ranch.

It all provided a great visual for how traffic will flow through the interchange at University Parkway and Interstate 75, which is expected to switch in June to its new traffic pattern.

Whether the public enjoys it remains to be seen.

For members of the public, like Greenbrook’s Sharon Niel, the meeting and the maps available helped relieve concerns about how the interchange will function.

“I’m not fearful of it,” Niel said. “I think it’s going to be fine if people will concentrate. The most important thing is to know where you are headed.”

Along with learning a new traffic pattern, the public was made aware the speed limit on University Parkway between Market Street and Cooper Creek Boulevard will be lowered from 45 mph to 35 mph.

Although it would seem the lower speed limit might lead to extra time to get through the area, Ingle said it, in fact, will drop time from everyone’s trip through the area.

He said the new design allows for more “green light” time for all traffic movements.

“The amount of delay time expected at University Parkway and Cattlemen Road will be 40% to 50% less and at University Parkway and Market Street will be 5% to 15% less than it is currently,” FDOT spokesman Robin Stublen said. “The ramps are where the major benefits are realized, with reductions in delay of 55% to 75%.”

The DDI design is a new concept in Florida. In it, the Interstate 75 bridges across University Parkway remain the same, albeit with a new lane for traffic. Underneath them, on University Parkway itself, comes the big change. The road diverges so that eastbound traffic under the interstate veers onto what would normally be the westbound lanes and then veers back, and vice versa. The road is modified so that left turns onto interstate ramps are incorporated into outside lanes, with drivers merging onto them in the same fashion they would merge onto a right-hand on-ramp. The configuration eliminates left turns across oncoming traffic. All right-turn movements will remain the same.

Ingle estimated the changes will shave off about 90 seconds through the area because cars will no longer back up traffic as they wait to make left hand turns across traffic.

Wait times at individual signals will adapt to the flow of traffic at any given time, so they cannot specifically be quantified, Stublen said.

FDOT officials expect the change will improve traffic flow and safety at the intersection.

“We’re pretty confident this is going to make a large difference,” Gore said of the project. “When you have innovative change, it can be worrisome. But between the signalization, signage, striping, it should give you confidence.”

Since the traffic pattern will switch in June, East County drivers will see the benefits of the new configuration before the DDI project is completed in August or September.