WESTON, Fla. – The South Florida region is considered one of the most congested areas in the nation, and as more people move here, it becomes even more difficult to keep up with the increased demand of traffic on major highways.
That's where adding express lanes along Interstate 75 comes in.
The goal is to provide more reliable and predictable travel times for drivers, while cutting down on congestion.
"Once the express lanes open up, the vehicles that normally use the general purpose lanes, most of them will basically go into the express lanes. That will hopefully alleviate congestion around the corridor," said Gerdy St. Louis, communications specialist for 75 Express Construction.
The Florida Department of Transportation reminds drivers that I-75 is one of the major arteries for hundreds of thousands of drivers traveling to and from southwest Broward and northwest Miami-Dade counties.
Officials said the new lanes are a step toward making the managed interstate the most advanced and effective transportation system in the country.
"Some of the other benefits are gas consumption in vehicles (and) our motorists won't be stuck in traffic along the corridor because now they have the express lanes," St. Louis said.
Two public meetings will be held next week for anyone to voice their concerns about the project.
The first meeting will be held from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Weston Branch Library. The second meeting will be held from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Miramar Cultural Center.
The express lanes were said to be open by early 2018, but an exact date has not been released.