By Toni Marshall
BOCA RATON – Aria Johnson has taken side roads and rescheduled classes to avoid the sometimes multi-mile backup at Glades Road and Interstate 95.
“I kind of have it figured out in the mornings,” said Johnson, 23, a senior at Florida Atlantic University and Boynton Beach resident. “It’s leaving school I still struggle with.”
Commuters traveling through south Palm Beach County will have some relief as designers for the Florida Department of Transportation put the final touches on plans for an Interstate 95 interchange at Spanish River Boulevard in Boca Raton. Construction on the three-year, spaghetti-bowl looking project was supposed to start as early as December .
But FDOT officials now caution it may be well after the holidays before the project is launched. The final design hasn’t been approved by the Federal Highway Administration. If it is approved by or near December , it’ll probably be best to wait until the holiday season has ended, says Chuck McGinness, the District Four spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation, overseeing the project.
Commuters can’t wait.
“I hope they start soon, traveling there is a nightmare,” says Robert Luongo, a businessman who avoids that section of the highway when traveling north or south. “They’ve been talking about that for eight years.”
The project will cost roughly $66.6 million to help ease congestion at Glades Road, which can see up to 75,300 cars a day, according to the DOT statistics.
That makes Glades Road the most traveled east/west route in southern Palm Beach County. The congestion affects Yamato Road and has spilled over onto Palmetto Park Road, where folks thought they were avoiding the traffic, says Mike Woika, assistant city manager for Boca Raton. Much of the traffic spills to and from Florida Atlantic University. The university’s new stadium can’t help but add to the congestion.
“If you can take people off Yamato and Glades and put them right into the university, it should make a huge difference,” Woika said.
The new interchange is proposed south of Yamato Road, connecting to the Florida Atlantic Boulevard (NW 8th Avenue)/Spanish River Boulevard intersection leading into the Florida Atlantic University campus. Also included are the addition of auxiliary lanes on I-95 in both directions from Glades Road to Spanish River Interchange and auxiliary lanes on I-95 in both directions from Yamato Road to Congress Avenue, as well as improvements to Spanish River Boulevard including a new four-lane bridge over I-95 and improvements to Yamato Road from the CSX railroad to Fourth Avenue.
The best example of the new merge pattern would be the new ramps at Palm Beach International Airport and Southern Boulevard, where the roads come together before I-95.
Construction on the interstate will be between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. as to not affect drive-time commutes, McGinness said.