Florida Keys News - Key West Citizen
Friday, August 17, 2012
FDOT talks about traffic woes
Says it will be better today;explains work crew schedule

Transportation officials acknowledged the citywide traffic nightmares that frustrated and delayed motorists Thursday, and promised today would be a better day.

Project managers from the Florida Department of Transportation updated members of the Key West Chamber of Commerce Thursday evening on the North Roosevelt Boulevard overhaul and promised relief from some of the out...

For the complete article, please pick up a copy of The Citizen for this day or purchase this day's electronic edition at http://secure.floridakeys.com/keysnews/enews. Home Delivery & Electronic Edition subscibers to The Citizen may access this article, once logged in to keysnews.com, at no charge. If you forget your password, please call us at 305-292-7777, ext. 4.
Share your thoughts and opinions related to this posting. Login or register to post comments. More Info

Cab drivers

These cab drivers are going to hurt or kill somebeody. Cutting into traffic, shortcuts through parking lots, speeding. I've been run off the road twice now, on my scooter, by taxis...in the last week. These drivers seem to think that them making their money is more important than the safety of us all. We're all between the same rock and hard place, DON'T endanger my life!!!

here is the solution to this fiasco!

i talked with a high ranking official on this road project and he said the reason work is not being done 24 hours or at night is because of the city's noise ordinance. is it possible that the city does a one time exemption/waiver of the ordinance on this project thus expediting the completion of the 3 year boondoggle.

It's a commercial area

The noise ordinance makes sense in residential areas, not commercial business areas. There isn't anybody around those areas in the middle of the night to bother with the noise, so that doesn't make sense. They could tone it down around any hotels in the area, but from what I can gather, there is only 1 hotel in the line of fire right now anyway (the one right near Checkers). Parrot Bay is off the road and wouldn't be affected. I think they are using it as an excuse.

Night Work

What ever happened to doing this stuff at night? Or is it just that FDOT is too stupid to figure that out?

No Logic

So now they want to prohibit left turns off Truman onto White & Simonton Streets. Do they realize how stupid this is? People will only go further down Truman and turn off onto the side streets, creating more congestion in the residential neighborhoods in that area. The problem here is that this is a knee jerk reaction. What would make more sense is to have alternating lights for each direction, giving one side the opportunity to turn left and then the other side as is already done coming off Bertha & 1st Streets. This also needs to happen with Flagler at this intersection. Instead of laying down the law, why not allow some practical suggestions from residents who are actually driving the streets.

Incompetence All Around.

First, Thursday, a police car is blocking the middle lane before the triangle. No sign, nothing about what is going on or what a driver is supposed to do. I went around him and then encountered a cop who made me go straight. No obvious reason why US1 was reduced to one lane. No signs, no advance notice on a website, much less a safety radio broadcast. So I was forced to go around and get in line on Flagler where it took over 45 minutes. Meanwhile, all the people who think they are special, in other words, all the cheaters going into the right turn lane are allowed to turn left before the responsible drivers who are waiting in line. That lane was moving ten times faster. Again, absolutely no signage or anything to tell drivers what is going on. This early afternoon two trucks are sitting, blocking the right lane on Flagler. No signs, NOTHING. Six people so two of them could mark something on the pavement. What in blazes are they doing on Flagler? Isn't screwing up Roosevelt enough for them? Total incompetents all around. No advance planning. No signs in place. No notice. This entire project is being conducted by incompetents and morons who should be fired. Aren't there any standards for this project?

This project is a public safety concern

It is not simply and inconvenience issue. Some is going to get hurt or worse out there. I have worked on several FDOT expansion and improvement projects in major metro areas and have never seen anything like this. Traffic flow modifications and rerouting to insure adequate traffic flow should have been implemented months prior to the beginning of this project. Now we have major conjestion, traffic trying to make up time through neighborhoods only to get to the next main artery and have to break into the jam they are trying to circumvent. The occurance of traffic accidents has got to have sky rocketed. It is only a matter of time until there is a major tragedy here. Not to mention road rage. Look, I sat in traffic for a half an hour in the correct lane. If you are the person who comes up the right lane on Flagler and acts like you didn't know that you would not be able to get over and then smiles, waves and puts on your blinker before cutting off half the town, it is a matter of time until someone goes off. We waited. You are not special. The traffic engineers who worked this project have failed miserably. This project needs to be stopped...today. We can change the schedule and the traffic flow. We cannot replace a life.

Stop and Re-Plan

Whoever planned this fiasco should be fired. The project should be stopped and re-planned. Wait until Monday when school starts if u think jammed today ... then shortly when season starts.

I'm confused

why does the city have to pay $261,000 because the extra concrete costs more but there is no mention of how much money was saved by not using the handrail. where did that money go?

No left turn!

Take away parking spots on Truman at White and Simonton and give us a left turning lane. This has always been a nightmare.

CHIMPANZEES....could have done a better PLANNING job.

The TRAIN WRECK.....at the TRIANGLE Thursday afternoon....was INEXCUSABLE. Choking off the main ingress/egress to the entire island.....AT DRIVE TIME.....was just plain.....STUPID. Let's face it. There was NO planning involved....in that decision. They could have waited 2 HOURS....to relieve the drive time pressure......and virtually ELIMINATED 80-90% of that particular problem. We're in trouble. Also...what happened to PHASE 1.....then PHASE 2.....then PHASE 3? Take a look at North Roosevelt . IT'S MORE LIKE.......PROBLEMS? I DON"T SEE ANY PROBLEMS? PHASES? WHAT"S THAT MEAN?

In Canada they repair major roads 24/7.

They have huge lights to help them work at night. It's also cooler at night and there is very little traffic. You can see them repairing the roads at 4in the morning . This speeds up the work. The guys on 14th have been working till sunset and have been working all day Saturday but it will be a miracle if they get the road work finished by the start of school on Monday.

In Canada they have a very short period of time

they can actually do the construction due to weather.
More Florida Keys Headlines
Friday, May 24, 2013
2 comments
Thursday, May 23, 2013
2 comments
Thursday, May 23, 2013
14 comments
Available Only in the Electronic Edition