Project News

From the Ocala Star Banner

The state of State Road 40:
The widening of this important east-west route is long overdue

Article published Mar 6, 2005

Ten years ago, Reader's Digest published an article identifying America's most dangerous highways. The magazine noted that "every year tens of thousands of motorists are killed on roads like these. Isn't it time we did something about it?"

State Road 40 through eastern Marion County was not on the list. But if Reader's Digest revisited that story today, it likely would be.

People are dying or sustaining critical injuries on SR 40 at a frightening pace. From 2000 to 2003, there were 330 crashes, including 15 fatalities. The Florida Department of Transportation conducted a study and found that SR 40 crash rates are higher than the state average. The highway's intersections with County Road 314 and SR 19 are categorized as high crash and fatality spots.

Existing two-lane sections of SR 40 from Ocala to Daytona ought to have been widened to four lanes years ago, and on a fast track. The road is a round-the-clock danger. Residents will not drive from Ocala to Daytona. The high-risk conditions deprive teenage drivers from enjoying Daytona's beaches.

Everyone recognizes the problem: too many vehicles and too few traffic lanes, control devices and signs.

Under current policies, however, FDOT's neglect has helped produce unneeded human tragedy and has no consideration for wildlife in the Ocala National Forest, through which SR 40 passes.

State Road 40 was originally constructed from Ocala to Daytona to meet the need for an east-west evacuation route, but it would be a gross understatement to say that the existing two-lane highway is inadequate as such.

In the last 30 years, Marion County's population has soared from 69,030 to 293,317, or 425 percent. Meanwhile the number of people in Volusia County has jumped from 210,700 to 468,663, or 222 percent.

Yet currently SR 40 is the only continuous east-west corridor between Interstate 10 in north Florida and I-4 in Central Florida, a visible and worrisome gap in the ability to quickly move large amounts of vehicles out of a threatened area.

That population boom, meantime, has also increased traffic congestion, making the road more dangerous.

FDOT started discussions on widening SR 40 as long ago as 1994, according to the ongoing State Road 40 Environmental Feasibility Study, or EFS.

The EFS, which began in 2003, involves an array of officials from local and regional governments as well as members of environmental and business groups and residents analyzing potential improvements to SR 40 between Silver Springs and U.S. 17 in Volusia County. The study is expected to finish in early 2005.

In my opinion, this is another delay action.

Eleven years have passed, and yet we have no estimated costs or budget submitted, no land acquisition, no scheduled date of construction commencement and no estimated date of completion. FDOT is unable to make decisions that will obviously have a positive impact on our county and save lives.

FDOT needs to explain why.
The EFS team does not take into consideration ramifications of these horrible crashes of residents and non-residents. How many of the injured will never be able to walk again, see the faces of their loved ones, or return to the work force to support their families?

Major injuries, minor injuries, hospitalization and rehabilitation costs, lost wages and vehicle and property repair costs are all consequences of these accidents.

That Reader's Digest piece a decade ago pointed out: "Research shows that when you widen a two-lane highway to four lanes and add a median, you reduce fatalities by an average of 70 percent."

State Road 40 should have been widened 30 years ago. Enough is enough. Widening SR 40 should be scheduled to begin tomorrow. No more procrastinating, and no more meetings that obviously do not accomplish the goals of Marion County residents.

In conjunction with widening SR 40, overpasses or underpasses and fences at least 8 feet high should be constructed to reduce accidents associated with wildlife. Animals are very smart and have demonstrated their ability to adapt and utilize the passageways throughout the United States.

During numerous trips traveling I-10 west of I-75 in the Panhandle, I have not seen any wildlife killed alongside the road, clearly a testament to the effectiveness of the fences and overpasses or underpasses.

Talk is cheap. Lives and limbs are priceless.

Bill Griscom is a retired field service representative for General Electric. He lives in Ocala and regularly attends the SR 40 Collaborative Task Force meetings.