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Published on Tuesday, November 2, 2004
in the Ft. Myers News-Press
That new design for the split in the road on U.S. 41 north of Wiggins Pass Road may raise a few questions, but officials say it isn't raising the rate of traffic accidents.
In fact, the whole purpose of the raised median is to make the state highway safer, said Debbie Tower, spokeswoman for road construction work on the highway.
The northbound lanes are engineered with a bank toward the center median to make the curve from the intersection with Old 41 Road easier for drivers to negotiate, she said.
The raised bank creates the difference in elevation.
The change came on that stretch of U.S. 41 in north Collier County when construction crews recently finished widening the roadway and built a new median between the north and southbound lanes.
The northbound lanes are about three feet higher than the southbound lanes, creating a sloped wall for southbound drivers to look at.
"It may appear a little different to many in this particular area of Florida," Tower said of the median, "but it's not an unusual design."
Sgt. Douglas W. Dodson, public information officer for the patrol's traffic division, said he checked traffic reports for the area and sees no increases in accidents since the median was rebuilt.
"I see nothing abnormal happening there," Dodson said.
Dodson said the elevated design of the median isn't all that unusual for other parts of Florida.
"I've seen them in other locations," Dodson said.
But if drivers are slowing down and looking twice because the roadway is a little different, that is probably a good thing, Dodson said.
"That makes us pay a little bit more attention than just driving down a straight road all the time," Dodson said.
Tower said the point of the elevated design of the northbound lanes is to bank the curve in the road for traffic coming from the intersection of Old 41 Road and U.S. 41.
"That banking allows drivers to make that turn a little more easily," Tower said. "That's all there is to it."