Source: Sun Sentinel
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2009/06/22/0622turnpike.html
It's a clash of religion and ramps. Florida's Turnpike officials say Palmetto Park Road is the best location for a $119 million SunPass interchange to relieve bottlenecks at the Glades Road toll plaza.
But residents who live near the road say officials have overlooked the impact that an interchange would have on West Boca's community of Orthodox Jews concentrated along Palmetto Park, who walk on the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays.
They say Yamato Road, with a bigger concentration of major employers, makes more sense.
The proposed interchange is part of a larger study to widen 10 miles of the turnpike in the densely populated corridor in north Broward County and south Palm Beach County, where access to the turnpike is limited.
The Glades exit is overloaded with traffic because it is the only full turnpike interchange in a 12-mile stretch between Sample Road in Broward and Atlantic Avenue, west of Delray Beach.
A half interchange connects the turnpike and the Sawgrass in Deerfield Beach, but there are no ramps to Southwest 10th Street.
Turnpike officials say Southwest 10th Street can't handle turnpike traffic unless it is upgraded to an expressway, which Broward County officials refuse to allow. So the search for a new interchange has focused on locations west of Boca Raton.
Palmetto Park Road is the ideal choice, according to turnpike officials, because almost two-thirds of the traffic using the Glades Road exit is headed to and coming from the south.
Putting an exit north of Glades wouldn't help those drivers as much, officials say.
Ken Bender disagrees.
"No one is denying the congestion at Glades. But what the turnpike is proposing isn't going to help," Bender said. "Why would somebody exit the turnpike a mile south of Glades when they are heading north of or east on Glades Road to the old IBM or Broken Sound commercial properties, Office Depot or FAU. All you're going to do is congest the local roads."
While turnpike officials say an interchange at Palmetto Park would have a "low impact" on surrounding neighborhoods, Bender said that might have been true 20 years ago but not today.
"There is a steady stream of pedestrian traffic from Friday night to Saturday night, by those who observe the Jewish Sabbath and do not drive. The same holds true for Jewish holidays, which can occur on any day of the week," Bender said.