GET READY! YEARS IN THE MAKING, MONTHS OF DELAYS…DIVERGING DIAMOND GOES LIVE AT 6 A.M.
BY: TRAFFIC CENTER | BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2023 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The relatively peaceful image above of Glades Road and I-95 early Sunday morning is going to change dramatically in just hours. Monday morning, around 6 a.m., the Florida Department of Transportation will remove all cones and barriers as the “Diverging Diamond” opens for the first time. It could happen earlier. It could happen slightly later. But it will happen early Monday morning.
Years in the making, the “Diverging Diamond” is designed to ease traffic congestion on the heavily used section of Glades Road in Boca Raton that doesn’t just connect to I-95, but also provides access to the main entrance of FAU. Once a sleepy local school, FAU is so large that it has — in part — necessitated major traffic reconfigurations in the area. Add to that new express lanes on I-95, incredible growth in Boca Raton, and snowbirds who seemingly refuse to go back home, and you have what FDOT saw as a need to dramatically change how traffic moves on that section of Glades Road.
Motorists may not even realize what’s happening until they’ve already moved through the intersection. From the sky, however, it may appear confusing. Eastbound traffic will move in what is now the westbound lanes, while westbound traffic will move in the eastbound lanes. Confusing on paper? Absolutely. Confusing in real life? We’ll see. Other Diverging Diamonds in Florida have proven to be largely problem free. However, Boca Raton drivers are special drivers, so anything could happen Monday morning.
Listen to Andrew Colton’s interview on NewsRadio 610 WIOD with one of the FDOT Engineers overseeing the project. Glades Road remains closed at I-95, in both directions, until the Diverging Diamond opens Monday morning.
