AASHTO Journal, 16 October 2015
Jim Boxold, secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, unveiled a new “Interstate 75 Relief Task Force” that will help the department produce measures to improve traffic flow and safety along that heavily traveled highway.
Boxold said Oct. 14 that the task force “will develop consensus recommendations to advise the department regarding multi-modal transportation solutions.”
It is scheduled to begin meeting Dec. 7 and to complete its work with a final report to Boxold by Oct. 1, 2016.
The goals behind the effort, and the panel’s creation, include providing congestion relief for passenger vehicles and freight operations, for residents and the heavy volume of visitors to the state. That can improve travel safety and reliability, and enhance economic development opportunities, FDOT said.
“Florida is the third-largest state in the nation with almost 100 million visitors each year,” Boxold said. “Interstate 75 is the primary gateway into central Florida and Tampa Bay for visitors and commuters and one of the most traveled truck routes in the state. It’s critical to examine options to increase mobility and safety in this region.”
The panel’s work, FDOT said, will be modeled after the planning process earlier used by the East Central Florida Corridor Task Force, which was created in 2013 to develop recommendations for future transportation corridors in Brevard, Orange and Osceola counties.
Bill Killingsworth, ECFCTF chair and director of the Division of Community Development at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said: “The prior task force demonstrated the value of long-range, large-scale planning for making decisions about future transportation corridors in the context of environmental stewardship, economic development, and land use decisions. We look forward to working with FDOT and the I-75 Relief Task Force to apply the same principles in this study area.”
Charles Pattison, policy director for 1000 Friends of Florida and who also served on that panel, said: “I am pleased that the lessons learned with the East Central Florida Corridor Task Force will help to promote and implement FDOT’s continuing commitment to coordinating good growth management with local, state and regional planning programs as it advances the Tampa Bay to Northeast Florida Future Corridor process.”
Killingsworth and Pattison will be among those serving on the I-75 Relief Task Force, along with officials representing local governments and agencies, environmental organizations, developers and private landowners.