Jul 23, 2008 8:21 pm US/Eastern
Officials Try Cleaning Up I-95 Express Mess
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The wheels on 95 keep on turning. The problem is that they are illegally turning into and out of the new express lanes and causing crashes.
A new safety measure was put in place Wednesday to prevent accidents as a result of the new express lanes on I-95, so
CBS4's Jorge Estevez went to I- 95 to report on the changes and talked with officials to see how the new orange markers will alert drivers to a new way of driving north on I-95.
We caught a driver heading north on I-95 who noticed the new orange cones. The driver made a last minute decision to get out of the express lanes, and as a result cut off another SUV. He just made it by. Many other cars are experiencing near crashes because of the new lanes.
"I do deliveries everyday to different hospitals," said Reynaldo Franqui, who has had his fill of the express lanes on I-95 north between where State Road 112 spills out to I-95 north to 151st Street. "They split the roads up and led me to a big confusion. Which way Am I going?" questioned Franqui.
The department of transportation has now added 150 orange cone-like structures called delineators and placed them closer together.
"It was too much of a temptation to weave in between the delineators," said Brian Rick, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation.
Tuesday night crews installed 50 orange delineators at the beginning of the express lanes at ten feet apart. Engineers left the white delineators for the next few miles. They are at twenty feet apart. At the end of the express lanes, crews installed 100 orange delineators at ten feet apart. "If you reduce that to ten feet and you have a rather large vehicle you are going to think twice about trying to squeeze in," said Rick.
What do drivers think? "If these orange things work and they help prevent accidents, I guess it's a pretty good idea," said Franqui.
If the orange delineators at ten feet apart does work, the department of transportation said they may add even more markers to the entire stretch to avoid the temptation for drivers to swerve in and out of traffic.
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