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BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — A south Florida man was arrested after allegedly leading police on a multi-county chase in a stolen fire truck on Thursday. Miami Fire Rescue crews were conducting a training exercise in North Miami Beach at around 6:30 p.m. when one of their trucks drove off. Police identified the man inside as Lekambrick Hanna, 31, of Miami, NBC affiliate WPTV reports. The truck struck an Opa Locka police cruiser, according to NBC affiliate WTVJ. No one was inside the car at the time of the crash. A chase ensued as the fire truck continued north onto...

The state’s plan to build three massive toll roads through rural swaths of Florida were scrapped Tuesday, when the House of Representatives cast the last vote needed to repeal the controversial projects and send the legislation to the governor for final review. But the repeal isn’t exactly a total repeal: The legislation still authorizes new toll roads and highways, including expansion and “road upgrades” along 130 miles of scenic U.S. 19 between Citrus County and I-10 in north Florida, which could impact sensitive parts of Florida. It’s now in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hands, following the Legislature’s action on 330 miles...

Proponents have called the state’s massive new toll road project a monumental opportunity and a thoughtful plan for smart growth. The 330 miles of new highways will curb interstate congestion, bolster the economy and facilitate hurricane evacuations, they say. In short, the argument goes, the roads would be a good investment. So why is it that so many of the preliminary studies are at best lukewarm on the idea? And the latest reports only add to the list of reasons to reconsider the controversial project. The tolls roads, dubbed the Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, were largely pushed by...

AUBURNDALE — Florida has one of the world’s most famous asphalt ovals in the Daytona International Speedway. A slightly smaller track recently completed in Auburndale won’t draw massive crowds for races, but it’s part of a project that could hasten the day when self-driving vehicles take over the roads. Crews finished laying asphalt for the 2¼-mile oval — phase one of SunTrax — in early May, and construction will begin in the coming months on infield elements designed for the development and testing of connected and autonomous vehicles. The second phase of SunTrax, a project overseen by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Imagine not being able to pay cash for some of the toll roads you use every day. It's already happened in and around Miami and near Tampa, but now it is going to be happening in Central Florida. The Florida Turnpike Enterprise confirmed that all Florida's Turnpike roadways are going to all-electronic tolling in a 70-mile stretch from Osceola County to Sumter County by next summer. According to FTE, the project will take place on Florida's Turnpike from Kissimmee Park Road at milepost 239 to I-75, which is at milepost 309. "They're going to continue on the...

Despite pleas from two former state governors and at least 90 environmental and community groups and businesses, Gov. Ron DeDantis on Friday signed a multibillion-dollar plan to build long stretches of toll roads across undeveloped sections of the state. The legislation has been labeled “the worst environmental bill in twenty years.” And the Florida Sierra Club has warned of pristine areas becoming urban sprawl, where “subdivisions and strip malls will proliferate and the natural resources that bring visitors to the state will be overused and overrun.” DeSantis approved the bill anyway. The announcement came not from the governor’s press office...

He used a remote control to troll the toll, cops allege. A 70-year-old Key Largo man deployed a remote-controlled license plate cover in an attempt to evade the tolls on Florida’s Turnpike in Miami-Dade County, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Unluckily for him, however, he did so in full view of an off-duty FHP trooper. It was just before 3 p.m. on Saturday when Davis was driving south in his Chrysler Pacifica minivan on the Turnpike approaching the Bird Road toll plaza, the arrest report stated. That’s when Lt. Alejandro Camacho, who was off duty and driving his own car,...

It's time to mount a serious campaign to end tolls in Miami-Dade County. Any time the government wants to charge people money, we should be allowed to vote on it. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) are highway robbers preying on predominantly poor motorists struggling to have a roof over their heads, put food on the table, and take care of their families. I remember the days when there was only one toll on State Road 112 when you left Miami International Airport to get to Miami Beach. Now there are tolls on virtually every major highway...

OCALA, Fla. In mid-2016, a regional task force that spent almost two years exploring ways to improve safety on a crowded Interstate 75 decided to take a conservative approach: make changes to the highway rather than build or expand other roads. Then Hurricane Imra blew into Florida and thousands of people trying to flee its path got stuck, many of them in Ocala and points north and south. Now, a new road with a potential route through Marion and Alachua counties may be back on the table, if not exactly speeding ahead. "I think they are going to do it...

Florida lawmakers demonstrated wisdom, foresight and fiscal responsibility in 2014 when they combined county expressway authorities in Central Florida into a single, regional agency. Roads don’t stop at county lines, and it’s inefficient and expensive to maintain multiple bureaucracies to control separate stretches of pavement. It’s also a problem when neighboring toll-road agencies have conflicting policies and plans for the future. Yet the rationale behind that 2014 law hasn’t been completely realized yet. It’s time for lawmakers to step in again. Dueling road agencies The Central Florida Expressway Authority now owns and operates 118 miles of toll roads in Metro...

Dive Brief: The Florida Turnpike broke ground earlier this month on a new test track where it will experiment with high-speed toll technology as well as systems for vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, according to FleetOwner. The 400-acre SunTrax site, in Auburndale, FL, will test toll equipment and interoperable tolling systems, as well as smartphone-based payment methods. Other technologies to be tested include high-speed connected platooning trucks, moveable barrier systems and machine vision and materials testing for new pavement types, lane markings and signage. Construction on the site's oval track is expected to be complete in spring 2019 with the first...

More than $45 million in revenue is believed to have been lost when the state suspended highway toll collections to help speed evacuations and relief efforts for Hurricane Irma, Florida's Turnpike system estimates. However, the estimated $3 million-a-day impact is not expected to hinder operations of the system or ongoing work programs, “as impacts such as toll suspensions due to a hurricane are taken into consideration during the annual budgeting process,” turnpike spokesman Chad Huff said in an email Friday. Funding 404 full-time positions, the turnpike system is budgeted at $1.57 billion for the current fiscal year, which began July...

As drivers approach the entrance for the express lanes, they will be given the option either to enter those lanes or stay in the so-called “general use” lanes.Express lane tolling is dynamic, meaning the price gets lower when traffic in the express lanes is light, and higher when congestion is worse.The turnpike express lane tolls will start at 25 cents above the regular toll price, said Chad Huff, turnpike spokesman.“There will be approach signs to alert drivers of the express lane price,” Huff said via email. “They will make a choice of which lane to use — the general toll...

It could be a busy legislative session for transportation issues in Florida. Already, several bills have been filed addressing controversial topics ahead of the session’s March 7 opening. Here’s a quick look at a few you’ll hear about in the coming weeks. Express lanes A bill proposed in the Florida Senate would prevent the creation of more express lanes on the state’s highways while also setting rules for how express lane toll money must be spent. The measure, SB 250, was filed by state Sen. Frank Artiles, R-Miami. If the bill is made law during the upcoming session, it would...

TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – Driving on Florida toll roads is part of doing business for trucker Bill VanEpps. “Tolls are a huge expense, and it adds up to a lot of money at the end of the year,” Bill said. He noticed a lot of mistakes with his EPass account so he switched to SunPass in January. “I’ve discovered weekly mistakes,” Bill added. Between January and September, Bill found 42 mistakes by the SunPass electronic tolling system. “My rig is a five axle rig. I’ve been charged for as many as 7 at one time. I’ve been charged for as...

Warning: Unless you put up a roadblock this minute, soon Florida Republicans will "Dubai" all the state's assets. Once again, Elephants in the Florida Legislature have sold their souls, assuming they ever had any. Routinely, they barter the public interest for a buck. This time, in a scheme that only Halliburton could hail, House Republicans just passed H.B. 7033, giving private companies virtual monopoly ownership of most of Florida's toll roads. (Democratic state Reps. Susan Bucher and Keith Fitzgerald told me they were outraged.) That's right! If the scheme becomes law, corporate interests will be able to make a profit...