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What Is A Diverging Diamond Interchange? FDOT Studying Them For I-10 Exits At Pine Forest And Nine Mile.
February 6, 2020
The Florida Department of Transportation is looking to widen I-10 from four to six lanes from near the Alabama state line to west of Highway 29 and reconstruct the interchanges at Nine Mile and Pine Forest roads as diverging diamond interchanges.
But what is a diverging diamond interchange?
A FDOT animation of a diverging diamond intersection at I-10 and Nine Mile Road is below.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, a diverging diamond interchange is a simple design innovation that improves safety and mobility, often at a much lower cost, compared to conventional interchange designs. The key to what makes a DDI work so well is how left turns are handled.
The DDI resembles a conventional diamond interchange, which is the most common form in the United States. Drivers make right turns at a DDI just as they would at a regular diamond interchange.
The crossover intersections are what make DDIs different, and they are very intuitive for the driver. The crossovers gently transition – or diverge – traffic from the right side of the road to the left side of the road and then back again. Because traffic is on the left hand side between the crossovers, all left turns occur without having to cross opposing traffic. The road geometry, signs, and pavement markings all work together to make this very simple. In cities where DDIs have been built, drivers say they don’t even notice the crossover intersections. according to the Federal Highway Administration.
FDOT held a Project Development and Environment Study meeting Tuesday evening on the potential project at Pine Forest United Methodist Church. There is no timetable, or funding, yet for construction.
Click image to enlarge.
Comments
31 Responses to “What Is A Diverging Diamond Interchange? FDOT Studying Them For I-10 Exits At Pine Forest And Nine Mile.”
boondoogle in the middle of no where….
The county and citizens need to discuss and push for the connection of Frank Reeder Road and Devine Farms Road. Creating a new overpass (not an interchange) but an overpass across the interstate I-10 would create another very useful East West corridor road that is needed in the area.
The connection of the Frank Reeder Road and Devine Farms Road would benefit the whole county and the surrounding area. With Navy Federal Credit Union having so many employees this new connection would help balance and lessen the traffic on Nine Mile Road, Pine Cone DR, and Pine Forest Rd.
Soon enough Pine Forest Rd and 297A will be like Davis Highway/Olive Road/University Blvd with all homes coming to area, if there is not another east and west corridor. The only east and west would be Kingsfield. OLF-8 is bigger than downtown Pensacola so it has the potential to be the next best place for everyone. So, as OLF-8 develops there will be a huge need to across the interstate for everyone living off of 297A/97 and Cantonment area, Nine Mile Road can’t be the only east west road. This completely makes since to connect the two roads. Why do it later after they are done 6 laning the interstate?
Construction crews will already be there and now the study is underway. If it’s not done now then it will be separate PD&E study and could cost more because the 6 lanes wasn’t designed correctly to include an overpass. Let’s not wait like we do for most things. Let’s plan ahead
the county MUST address their responsibility at the 297a @ Pine forest rd. these folks think that once the four lane is finished on nine mile it will open up the grid-lock but the true problems north bound is that so many travel north on Pine forest or turn on 297a. @ Publix is an accident waiting to happen.
The U-turn from Detroit will have a red light and U-turn built out for simi trucks Where the New Forest point complex is going in. and Hotel across with the Appt complex.
Pine Forest must be widened on the north bound ide or the grid-lock will last for years.
FYI… NO FUNDING SECURED FOR THIS PROJECT AND NOT ON FIVE YEAR PLAN.
For anyone that missed the meeting, they are still taking comments into consideration until Feb 14, 2020.
You can email Nikole Arrant, P.E. – FDOT Project Manager at narrant@hntb.com
or mail a comment to:
Ms. Nikole Arrant, P.E.
FDOT Project Manager
c/o HDR Engineering
25 W. Cedar Street, Suite 200
Pensacola, FL 32502
This information comes directly from a handout that they had at the meeting on Feb. 4, 2020 at Pine Forest United Methodist Church.
@William, if you would like a copy of this comment sheet for info or to post, please email me. I also have the brochure handout that I scanned in.
I think they have this in Sevierville, TN when you get off the interstate. I think. Very efficient.
I was at the meeting Tue night and studied all the maps and watched the videos. Looking at the plans on the Pine Forest project it does not allow anyone traveling on Detroit west bound to make a left hand turn onto Pine Forest. I asked for an explanation and was told they would have to make a right turn on Pine Forest and then a U turn before Walmart. Now that will only increase problems and accidents. The quests at the 3 motels on Detroit in that area will have a hard time going to restaurants south of I-10 on Pine Forest which needs to be addressed before final plans are approved. Presently traveling south on Pine Forest and attempting to turn east on Detroit you encounter a sign that says ‘Do Not Enter’, this is confusing to those not from this area and presenting problems for guests trying to reach those motels. The sign should be replaced with one now that says ‘ Keep Right’ and it would be self explanatory when making the turn. I could see the benefit of the new design. The other area of concern is the entrance to Wilde Lake. You will have to turn on the south side of the Tom Thumb in front of the car wash which will no longer be there and go behind the Tom Thumb and in front of Sonny’s and across where the pumps are at the Shell Station. The McDonalds will not be affected. The traffic light at the new Wilde Lake-Pine Forest intersection will allow traffic to be about to turn left or north on Pine Forest. I could see a better traffic flow esp around the on and off ramps for Pine Forest and 9 Mile intersections.
How much was spent on 29 to change the merging eastbound traffic onto I-10? Northbound 29 traffic merging into I-10 west has the same problem with traffic merging into the right lane of an interstate. Common sense would lead one to believe to correct potential safety hazards before taking on larger projects that will spend millions of dollars.
Wow. This aint cali. No need over engineer this…besides where will the land come from and wtf are we putting so much into navy fed area. Those clowns opened in the middle of no where. Thx guys!!!
Dear FDOT, anytime you need help with your designs it is obvious there are plenty of us sidewalk Engineers ready and willing to lay our knowledge on you.
Looks good, hope it includes that second N bound lane to Pine Forest.
For the person who thought the red lights were on the interstate, they are NOT! But, widening Pine Forest is must! Should have been four-lanes when it was 3-laned several years ago, but not enough money in the budget??? Now a real problem!! Nine Mile is taking way too long to finish & should have included PF widening. But since FDOT is contracting everything, the costs are so high that needed projects get pushed. Cutting personnel to prevent paying retirement $$ has caused an increase in the cost of construction, as everything is contracted out & not to the lowest bidder but to who ever has the ear of those in charge. Our government at work!! Spending our tax dollars!!
What a mess……………..good luck
BUT, the state is going to do what they
want no matter what we say……..
We were in Atlanta this past weekend and drove through one of these intersections. Unless you were looking for it you don’t even notice the crossing lanes. There are currently three sets of traffic lights at I10/Pine Forest. It looks like that could be reduced to two.
To ????????????
I’m not sure where you got the idea that there would be traffic lights on I10 itself but rest assured ALL traffic lights would be on Pine Forest.
Can the double crossing lane be elevated over the triple lane and all right turns be merging lanes to eliminate about 8 traffic lights? At first glance, I agree with the others that this looks confusing and a bottleneck.
The negativity of this community is simply mind numbing. I am not sure how anything gets done around here.
This seems like a great idea on the graphic but the time it’s going to take for construction still isn’t going to stop traffic right now. A short term fix would be to widen Pine Forrest red from the I10 intersection back pass 9 mile rd. Have the light truly sync up and stay green at the same time instead of green before the interstate and red directly under the interstate. Pull the turning lanes to get on the interstate back more and make them more visible to oncoming traffic so they know the right lane is only for interstate traffic. The turning lane getting onto I10 westbound needs to be longer as well.
At first it looked like a good idea but after further study it Looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Two little flyovers and no traffic lights would be better, works good the way it is except for the two lanes north need to be changed to four.
Could someone just finish 9 mile road
I travel the country a lot. (In fact, I am currently in Colorado, dropping a job assignment yesterday.) And, this traffic schematic is incredibly efficient and fluid everywhere I have seen them. The traffic flows…
How is this better than a cloverleaf? This thing with as many as 6 traffic lights better than something with no lights? A full implementation of a clover has no lights continuous flow of traffic and uses less land and asphalt than this monstrosity. This is “New Math” or more recently Common Core for DOT. Someone decides something new needs to be invented even if a perfectly useful alternative that is less complex already exists.
The biggest problem in the are is the reduction of two into one as you go north between I10 and 9 mile road. That’s was such a limited vision when all that traffic tries to merge into one lane. As usual it seems the planners are the problem!
For this to work properly, Pine Forest road needs to be widened to two lanes going from I-10 to nine mile road. If not, we will have the same bottleneck traffic like we do now.
I have driven through many of these – in Delaware, Georgia (Windy Hill Road near the new Brave’s stadium in Cobb County). They work well, reduce the number of stops for left turn entry into exit ramps, and make right hand turns onto exit ramps usually stop free.
In addition to these we need traffic circles/roundabouts instead of 4 way stops. The greatly improve traffic flow.
New construction of ramps are okay of an idea, but with that should also come additional lighting to make the entire new environment very visible for drivers at night time.
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What could possibly go wrong?
I believe this is what ALDOT is currently constructing over in Malbis. It’ll be interesting to see how well it works.
Yeah right! People don’t here can’t even handle continuous lanes and you wanna go up to moderate difficulty driving scenarios? The idea is not terrible but I question how well the populace will act once its in place.
I think instead of lights to control traffic there should be ramps where one road overpasses the other rather than causing traffic to stop and wait. Something similar to Hurlburt AFB ramp/overpass that allows through traffic without having to stop for those going to the base.
It looks good but something drastic needs to happen at the intersection of Pine Forest and Wild Lake. Like buying the property from Hardees and Waffle House and maybe the BP station as well.
We had alot of these in Georgia. Really relieves traffic
Yeah! This is the best of all, so far, by far, by my understanding….and I would suggest that you watch the video for the perspective of you, as if you were one car.