Relief is coming to the congested, frustrating and oftentimes maddening S.R. 56 interchange of I-75 sooner than expected, as the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announced it was moving up its plans to build a diverging diamond interchange (DDI).
That project is now slated to begin in fiscal year 2018, the beginning of which is July 1 of 2017.
“That is great news,” says Mike Moore, the new Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) chair who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel. “I thought the diverging diamond was a great idea from the start, and the other commissioners did too. I’m glad we can start it sooner.”
Moore and District 38 State Rep. Danny Burgess (R-San Antonio) played key roles in getting the project, which will cost around $18.5-million, fast-tracked. FDOT officials presented their new proposal to the Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization Dec. 8 at the Dade City Courthouse.
Construction of the DDI was originally scheduled to begin in 2024, but last November was moved up to 2020. The additional shortening of the timeframe will be good news to many travelers, especially around the holiday season, who have seen the lines of traffic to get off or on I-75 or through the interchange at S.R. 56 increasing.
DDIs, according to the website DivergingDiamond.com, are designed to create fewer conflict points when traveling through them, have better sight distance at turns, shorter pedestrian crossings and wrong-way ramps that are extremely difficult to access.
Despite looking like a confusing, diamond-shaped jumble of roads in pictures, the diverging diamond is said to cause virtually no driver confusion. A Springfield, MO, study showed a 60-percent reduction in collisions in a five-month period compared to a traditional exchange, and the website claims that in a five-year span of a DDI in Versailles, France, only 11 crashes have been reported.
Florida is building its first DDI at the University Pkwy. exit (No. 213) off I-75 in Sarasota. The Wesley Chapel location would be the state’s second DDI interchange.
The I-75/S.R. 56 junction continues to be one to avoid if at all possible for those in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area, and the 2.3-mile-long northbound exit routinely experiences back-ups of a mile or longer, sometimes even reaching the I-275 apex at the Pasco County line. The opening of the Tampa Premium Outlets on S.R. 56 west of I-75 last year hasn’t helped.
The S.R. 56/75 interchange was opened over a decade ago, and in 2011 a new ramp was constructed to ease congestion, to the delight of many in the community.
Roughly 100,000 drivers (combined heading east or west) pass through the I-75/S.R. 56 interchange, according to FDOT.
Steve Domonkos, the specialty leasing manager for the Shops at Wiregrass mall and a member of a Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) transportation task force, is happy to see the DDI construction moved up. But, Domonkos worries that even by 2018, with the rapid rate of development happening in both Wesley Chapel and Lutz, it still may be too late.
The sooner the better, he says, “but sooner than sooner would have been even better. It’s great to hear they are finally moving it up because traffic is already horrendous,’’ Domonkos says. “It’s a shame that the state and county didn’t get together before the Outlets opened, though. That intersection is already maxed.”
Moore, who drives through the intersection almost daily, says he has heard the same complaints from his constituents. But he thinks they will be happy to see progress considering the project was initially slated to begin in 2024.
“This shows what can happen when everyone works together to get something done,’’ he says.
Public hearings on the DDI project were scheduled around the region on Dec. 14, which was after we went to press with this issue. The Florida DOT will accept written comments until Tuesday, December 27, through D7wpph.com, by U.S. Mail (Attn: Ed McKinney, Florida Department of Transportation, 11201 N. McKinley Drive, MS 7-500, Tampa, FL 33612) or by email to D7wpph@dot.state.fl.us.
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