Bringing the latest in operational and technological innovation to Interstate 595 in Broward County, Florida, Street Smarts is providing Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) design for this 13-mile, east-west commuter corridor that presently carries over 180,000 daily vehicles. The $1.25 billion, 10.5-mile makeover is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the FDOT. It will include two additional through-lanes in each direction, a series of braided ramps and new auxiliary lanes, a pedestrian greenway, sound barrier walls, a future light rail transit corridor, new bus rapid transit service, and three reversible tollbooth-less toll lanes in the median with time-of-day, open road electronic tolling. ITS includes extensive traffic monitoring with closed circuit television cameras (48); microwave vehicle detectors (83); fully-automated, emergency vehicle only, retractable access gates (5 locations) for reversible lanes incident response; a fully-automated, barrier gate system for entry into the reversible lanes (5 locations); and overhead dynamic message signs (14 locations). This ITS technology network (all connected by fiber-optic cable to the FDOT's regional traffic management center) will preserve capacity, maintain a high degree of traveler safety and reliability, and maximize the overall project investment.

The corridor connects I-75 and the Sawgrass Expressway to I-95 and serves the greater Ft. Lauderdale area, Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, and Florida's Turnpike and is also designated as a major evacuation route. The I-595 mainlines are also flanked on each side by a continuous 2-lane "frontage" arterial (State Road 84) in each direction. Traffic volumes are expected to continue to increase dramatically, so the FDOT solicited bids from a number of private consortiums to front the project's cost, accelerate the massive re-construction effort, and provide the latest technology.

The unique ITS design challenge for Street Smarts on this project is two-fold. First, since roadway design preceded ITS design activities by about a year, we have been required to work at a torrid pace in order to meet the compressed construction schedule and integrate with the overall M-O-T planning and operation. Second, since no additional right-of-way is being acquired, availability of space for placement of ITS devices on poles or overhead truss spans is at an absolute premium and this has to all be designed adhering to the ITS spacing and coverage requirements of the FDOT over greatly varying roadway profiles.

At the recent February 26 project groundbreaking ceremony, Florida Governor Charlie Crist proudly stated that the project will be finished in 4½ years instead of 15 (a rebuilding pace that's never been done in Florida), and will create many thousands of jobs for a struggling Florida economy. The selected private consortium (lead by ACS Infrastructure Development - Madrid), will be required to operate and maintain the new facility for 35 years following reconstruction. Perhaps most interestingly, they won't even begin to receive graduated payments over the 35 years until the work is completed in 2014. You can view a 13-minute project video and keep up with progress by visiting www.i-595.com.

Street Smarts provides traffic engineering staff to assist with traffic management duties and management level traffic operations expertise at the GDOT Transportation Management Center. Additional services include business process analysis and process improvement services enabling greater efficiency and a more productive environment for GDOT.

Street Smarts provides administrative support and Construction, Engineering And Inspections (CE&I) support for the Georgia Department of Transportation's ITS Maintenance Statewide. The NaviGAtor system is currently comprised of a variety of field components and subsystems including 2,105 ITS field devices and 302-miles of fiber optic communications network used to transport video and data to and from the Transportation Management Centers located in Atlanta and Macon. ITS Maintenance works to ensure that the fiber optic network and all devices are functioning properly. This not only aids in incident management, but also helps to provide the traveling public with crucial traffic information.
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