A 30-year roadblock has been cleared and a link between the Sawgrass Expressway, Florida’s Turnpike and Interstate 95, through the heart of Deerfield Beach, is a step closer to reality.
The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization has voted in favor of an 18-point plan to expand Southwest 10th Street. It includes sunken express lanes down the middle of Southwest 10th Street, with higher local access roads running parallel. Other options include sound-proofing walls, better traffic signal timing at eight intersections, and improved interchanges between Southwest 10th Street and the three highways.
“It’s fair to say it’s a done deal, pending money [to pay for it],” said Gregory Stuart, Executive Director of the Broward MPO. “This is monumental. This is the furthest this has ever gotten, ever.”
Some estimates have the unfunded connection taking at least eight years to build at a cost of more than $500 million. Gerry O’Reilly, District Four secretary for the Florida Department of Transportation, has said he will find the money.
That could happen by July, Stuart said.
However, there was no immediate timetable for when the work would begin.
The Southwest 10th Street expansion was approved as part of a five-year, $5.4 billion capital works budget proposed by the state’s transportation agency.
A connection was part of the original plans when the Sawgrass Expressway opened in 1986.
Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and Parkland supported the link but residents of Deerfield Beach resisted because it would slice through one of the city’s biggest residential developments, Century Village, as well as several business areas.
As the population grew, efforts were renewed in 1993 and 2008 to connect the highways and allow nonstop traffic flow without disrupting local traffic, but residents and businesses continued to resist saying the additional traffic would make it more difficult to access their homes and would cause more noise and pollution.
But years of studies showed the tree-lined, four-lane, 2 1/2-mile stretch of road between the three highways could no longer handle the estimated 45,000 vehicles each day. A solution was needed.
Design proposals included overpasses, a tunnel, depressed roadway, sound walls, special lanes, more mass transit, improved traffic signal timing, better intersections and expressway interchanges, safety features for pedestrians and bicyclists, landscaping buffers, and detour alternatives during construction, among other items.
Years of environmental and traffic studies, engineering, and public meetings incorporated many of these suggestions into the final solution.
Deerfield Beach commissioner Bill Ganz — a member of the Southwest 10th Street Community Oversight Advisory Committee that put together the 18-point plan — said he is happy with the outcome as long as the recommendations are followed.
“Obviously, this is going to have a severe impact on the city of Deerfield Beach,” he said. “I hope the impact will not be as negative as we fear.”
wkroustan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4303
