ETX:Miami gets wild express toll plaza

In plan the new toll plaza provides for 300m (1,000') of approach road with jersey-barrier separation to allow safe deceleration from the express lanes, with a similar length of separated roadways downstream for safe merging. ET-patrons in the express lanes will get two 3.65m (12') lanes with 3m (10') shoulders both sides. The design complies with AASHTO standards for sight and safe stopping distances and clearances and for accel/decel tapers. The ETX facility is designed for addition of a travel lane for an eventual 3-lanes.

The new manual toll lanes are a bit wider than the old. An existing tunnel for toll collectors and equipment will be extended because of the slightly greater width of the new plaza.

Presently the plaza has 10-lanes, 5-coin machine and 5-manual collection for a capacity calculated at 7,350 veh/hr. To replace this they are building the mainline plaza shown and an additional and separate ramp plaza (not shown). Based on capacities of 450 veh/hr for manual, 950 coin machines and 2,200 veh/hr ETX, they estimate the new plazas will cope with 12,400 veh/hr – a 40% improvement.

The design which cost $2.7m has already received a Merit award from the American Institute of Architects. The construction contract is for $28m. With the work being done under traffic a maximum 33 months is allowed for a scheduled opening in the spring of 2003, but incentives are in place allowing the contractor up to $2m in bonuses for earlier completion. (MDX 305 637 3277 www.mdx-way.com)

COMMENT: We love the exuberance of this design, making a dramatic statement that tolls are here, and no apologies. Very appropriate after the people of the area overwhelmingly (68/32%) endorsed tolls rather than taxes in that popular ballot July 99. (see TRnl#41 Jul/Aug 99 p1) However we earnestly hope the structural engineers have double-checked their sums. Too heavy on cameras and other VES gear, we fear, and the whole gargantuan contraption could keel over leftward, the long sign gantry over the manual lanes rearing up momentarily like the death plunge of the Titanic, before filling the ETX lanes with tangled debris?

[ARTISTRY NOTE: If you think our sketch above is a little rough, then be grateful you were spared the fruits of our efforts at scanning an architect’s ‘visualization’ which repeatedly produced ‘watermarked’ graphic files, the tekkie term for a wavy splodgy mess. We hope to publish some no-arty-nonsense engineering drawings in a future issue.]