The Congress Avenue overpass over I-95 has a dangerous reputation.
“The design of that interchange is unlike anything in Palm Beach County,” said Chuck McGinness with the Florida Department of Transportation.
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Tractor-trailers have crashed at this overpass three times in less than a year, twice in the last month.
In March, FDOT said they’re planning on changes to the signs on the overpass but those changes would take about 60 days.
Two weeks later, another semi crashed at that overpass. A tow truck driver, who was called to the scene to remove the rig, fell to his death.
“Because of the severity of the recent crashes and just the volume of traffic there, we decided to expedite the work,” McGinness said.
Suddenly, instead of taking 60 days, FDOT moved up the sign changes to Monday.
“It moved up to the priority list to number one,” McGinness said.
The plan is to put up signs that make it clear to drivers that they can only turn right on the exit. They also plan to put up “signal ahead” signs, warning drivers to slow down. They’re going to remove huge straight arrows with reflectors that some drivers fear contradicts the right turn arrows on the ramp.
McGinness explained, those straight arrows are actually “wrong lane” errors. They’re designed to tell drivers that you’re in the correct lane. If you’re driving in from the other side, the reflectors on the arrow light up red, telling you that you’re going the wrong way.
The change to remove the straight arrows on turn lanes was recently approved in Tallahassee.
“This will actually one of the first interchanges in the state were we will be making that change,” McGinness said.
Repainting of the road will start Monday at 9 p.m. and is scheduled to be completed by Tuesday.
The state agrees, those changes are short-term fixes.
“The long-term fix is that we’re widening I-95 in that area and putting in express lanes,” McGinness said.
The widening of I-95 will is slated to start in 2020 and will take approximately three years to be completed.
