Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/277189
the executed resolutions. Once we receive [them], hopefully the [FDOT] secretary will find state funding." Construction could begin within a year if the county commissions approve resolutions soon. State and local officials would then have to work out a strategy for putting the work on pause while the 2017 World Rowing Championships are under way at Benderson Park. That event probably will take place in September or October, organizers have said, after the more intense heat of summer has diminished. The diverging diamond will be the first big step in transportation improvements in the area, Sarasota County Chief Engineer James K. Harriott Jr. told the News Leader. A series of roadway projects designed to give motorists options for navigating around the Lakewood Ranch/University Parkway area would come next. It is important to add those proposed county projects to the regional transportation net- work to ensure their eligibility for state grants or other funding — a process that is already underway, Harriott said. While having the diverging diamond already in place at the interchange would have done little to prevent lane closures after the January accident, a new overpass across the interstate would have provided an alternate east-west route, similar to Proctor Road or Palmer Boulevard to the south. An improved Lorraine Road would provide a north- south thoroughfare. "There still would have been traffic prob- lems," Harriott pointed out. "That's why we need the alternative routes and why we are trying to work on that roadway network east of the interstate." % A third diverging diamond interchange was built in Missouri in 2010, this one in St. Louis. Contributed photo This diverging diamond design debuted in Springfield, MO, in 2009. Contributed photo Sarasota News Leader March 14, 2014 Page 45