Federal Highway at Kinney Tunnel closed for rest of the week
FORT LAUDERDALE - If your daily travels take you through the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel on US 1/Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, you're going to need a "Plan B" for the next few days.
The state's Department of Transportation closed Federal Highway, between SE 2nd Street and SE 7th Street including the tunnel, on Tuesday morning. The stretch will remain closed through 5 p.m. Saturday, January 20th.
"Looks like there's some construction going on. The roads look closed. It's going to cause me a 10 minute delay, probably," said Jenna Vlassis. She wasn't expecting it to be closed. "It's a pain. Big pain. I've lived here for 6 months and I use the tunnel every day, so I'm ready for it to be open."
"The closure is part of the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel Improvements projects and FDOT crews will be working on north ventilation building fan replacement operations, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) conduit operations, concrete pole installation operations, and wire pulling operations," according to a statement from the transportation department.
During the closure, drivers on northbound Federal Highway will be detoured via SE 7th Street, SE 3rd Avenue, and Broward Boulevard. Southbound traffic will be detoured via Broward Boulevard, SE 3rd Avenue, and Davie Boulevard. There are signs in place to help drivers figure it out.
We timed how long it took to take that detour. Our first run was about 10 in the morning. We made our way to Southeast 3rd Ave heading north and got to US 1 on the other side in about 7 minutes. But if you catch a bridge or hit more traffic, it can take longer. At lunchtime we made the same drive. It took considerably longer. We made it to US 1 and Broward Blvd in about 19 minutes.
This is the last time they plan to completely close the tunnel. In the meantime — give yourself some extra time on your commute.
Click here to see the plan for the tunnel.
