OCALA, FL (352today.com) – An update regarding the Pine Avenue at SR 40 intersection project was given Aug. 26 at the Ocala/Marion County Transportation and Planning Organization meeting at the McPherson Governmental Campus Auditorium.
An issue that was addressed at the meeting came up about a year ago, where the Florida Department of Transportation was winding down the construction of the improvements on 441/301 just at the intersection of SR 40, said Mike McCammon, Florida Department of Transportation operations engineer.
“We had noticed as everyone did, that it wasn’t working as well as we anticipated,” said McCammon. “We listened and we activated some methods.”
A crosswalk existed, but it had a much wider concrete median. In order to build the dual left lane, there used to be three through lanes that went on down to the signal at the courthouse, one of the lanes dropped, with only two lanes going toward the courthouse, said McCammon.
The concern was the two turn lanes are queuing back past the left turn lane, and also queueing past the right turn lane, said Jim Stroz, FDOT director of transportation development. However, safety concerns outweigh those of capacity concerns.
A pedestrian crosswalk at SW 2nd St. will remain. A large concrete median had been installed and is being modified, and drivers will be able to access that left turn lane much earlier. The right turn lane is also being improved.
“During one of our most recent traffic counts, the right turn volumes at the intersection for northbound actually exceeded the left turn for many of the peak hours,” said Stroz. “We really looked at this project as an opportunity to capitalize that and improve that capacity. That right lane which used to start there at Broadway now will extend and begin south of Fort King St.”
As a northbound traveler gets closer to SR 40, the left turn has already been established, it will be a single left turn lane that will lead into the dual left turn lane. The right turn lane has already been established back at Fort King St., of several hundred feet of improvement and capacity, said Stroz.
The pedestrian crossing at Broadway has been removed, however, pedestrians will still have access to the signalized crossing at SR 40 as well as that pedestrian crossing that was at SW 2nd St., said Stroz. The crosswalk that had been put in initially was because of the wide median that had existed previously, however, there were safety concerns with pedestrians having to cross through four or five lanes of queue traffic.
‘The lane geometry will remain the same, so we still have two northbound dual left turn lanes, two through lanes and then the right turn lane onto SR 40,” said Stroz.
An overhead cantilever sign on Broadway St. will be removed, and that was done because the FDOT had to do some curb adjustment, but there will still be signs to provide drivers with guidance for which lane to be in for the turn, if they want to go east or west on SR 40.