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Roundabout construction snarls traffic in Sarasota
Kimberly Kuizon reports
SARASOTA, Fla. - Horns blared, drivers screamed and some sat in traffic on their phones waiting for the car ahead of them to move near U.S. 41 and Gulf Stream in Sarasota.
"It was just a big chaotic mess of traffic around," shared Dylan Jon Wade Cox, an area photographer and videographer.
The intersection shifted this week as FDOT began construction on a new roundabout that’s expected to take about 10 months to finish.
"Yesterday it took me an hour and a half to get out from the island to where I needed to go," complained Tryla Larson.
Cox hopped on his bike and documented what he saw, noting that traffic flowed significantly better on Wednesday than it did Tuesday morning.
"Throughout the whole day, the traffic coming from St. Armands was all the way backed up it seemed like. Today's much better at least," he said.
Sarasota police are directing traffic as FDOT adds more signs and time lights to alleviate the traffic jam.
"The department did not want to close this major intersection down that was on the table for discussion. We didn’t want to do that but this is the balance that comes with this type of project," a representative explained.
The issue is that there's no through traffic at Gulf Stream and U.S 41. Instead, it detours to St. Armand's Circle which means drivers cannot head north along U.S 41 at Gulf Stream and need to go through downtown to get back onto U.S. 301.
READ: Sarasota leaders encourage caution, common sense when using new roundabouts
"Generally, the traffic pattern will be similar. It will not change significantly like this did. The next traffic shift will be to implement the roundabout," said Chris Pecor, the senior project engineer with CDM Smith.
"You just have to have a lot of patience that’s for sure. It’s not too bad, if you’re patient," Larson added.
LINK: For more information on the project visit http://www.swflroads.com/gulfstreamroundabout/.
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