Miami Beach officials and Florida Department of Transportation representatives met with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and representatives of Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Debbie Wasserman Schultz July 22 to discuss frustrations over a state plan that could temporarily close ramps connecting the city to I-95 during the 2009 tourist season.
"We might be debating Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, but when you're talking about traffic in South Florida, that really impacts people," said Miami Republican Ros-Lehtinen. "As important as all those issues are, traffic congestion in South Florida…is very important."
City officials were concerned that part of Florida’s new 95 Express program, geared toward relieving the area’s infamous traffic jams, could end up disrupting Miami Beach’s tourist season because the plan involves raising two bridges to create more lane space on I-95.
State officials said that they will push back the construction schedule, but Beach officials told Ros-Lehtinen that they are still worried about the plan providing access between the new I-95 express lanes and the Julia Tuttle Causeway.
The city is asking FDOT to place a northbound entrance to one of the I-95 express lanes north of the Julia Tuttle—an alteration City Manager Jorge Gonzalez said could be done through "modest tweaking."
State officials believe this modification could create confusion for drivers, however, and force causeway users to navigate across several lanes of traffic to get into the new express lane.
FDOT Assistant Secretary Kevin Thibault offered to have his agency engineers meet again with city engineers to see if a solution can be reached.
"Let's get the minds back together and let's see if there is a solution," he said.