Abstract Manager

This presentation will use several case studies highlighting innovative intersection treatments that have greatly or will greatly improve traffic operations at their locations and discuss the implications of this performance increase on the surrounding roadway network, how to plan for it, how to mitigate for it, and what can happen if you do not.

One of the case studies, an interchange now open to traffic in the outer suburbs of Tampa, Florida, highlights one such example.  A former partial cloverleaf with adjacent frontage roads along the crossroad and along the freeway presented a unique challenge that was addressed using a unique combination of innovative intersection treatments to create a one-of-a-kind solution, a solution that worked so well it has led to the creation of a major new bottleneck on the freeway mainline.

Recently collected field data has shown the interchange has so dramatically improved throughput at the ramps that the once restricted flow now highlights a capacity restriction on the mainline that had been protected by the failing interchange.

The second case study, an interchange currently in the early design stages in the far western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, will highlight a case where the expected downstream failure of an intersection belonging to a different roadway agency will directly influence the selection and design of the selected alternative and is an excellent case study in designing for failures out of your control.

The presentation will give practitioners high-level guidance on identifying potential problems and design changes that can be included to mitigate elements out of your control.