Good Practice Localized Bottleneck Reduction - Merge from I-95 onto I-595 (Florida)

The 2-lane on-ramp from I-95 squeezed into one lane before merging with 3-lanes of I-595. Backups on the ramp were constant and predictable. Florida highway engineers noticed that often, the 3-lane mainline was under capacity. They undertook a trial experiment (using only cones and standard work zone signing) to reduce the 3-lane mainline to two lanes upstream of the merge, and to allow both lanes of the on-ramp to run unrestricted. Following a sufficiently successful concept period, they instituted the full time change; namely, to reduce, by restriping, the mainline from 3 to 2 lanes, and to allow, the 2-lane on-ramp to run unfettered.

The entire project, including the concept and the ultimate change, took approximately nine months and only cost $1.2M.