HIL CO 73 page 33

 one section, that was only one lane, where traffic coming from the east on 1-4 got
 into the interchange. For that traffic to merge, then, into traffic going on further
 west and then south, there was one lane of traffic. It was a hell of a bottleneck.
 We tried our best, including going to Washington and sitting down with those
 people and explaining to them that this interchange needs to be enlarged, and
 we are going to outgrow it within a very short period of time. Their answer was,
 you will not outgrow it, and you will not fill the transportation facilities on
 Interstate 4 and 75 and 275 going west for years down the road. Our feeling was
 it would be overloaded within less than five years, and it was. And they refused
 to do anything about it. So that is why we got the problem we have today, and
 you know what they call it, "Malfunction Junction." That is the name of it, and it is
 very appropriate. But there just was not any way to get the federal bureau of
 roads to get off of that position they were taking and their funds. I say their funds,
 but those are funds that come from the State of Florida and are sent to
 Washington. By the time they get back to Florida, it is less than 50 percent of
 what went to Washington.

B: In the way of gas taxes?

C: In the way of gas taxes, correct.

B: Although the funding formula was supposed to be $0.90 cents of federal money
 out of every dollar going to interstate.

C: That is right, and then 10 percent furnished by the state of Florida. Then they
 turned the maintenance of the roads and the whole road system over to the state
 road department. Therein lies the problem with the road department phase, once
 that thing was completed. Mowing the roads was a hell of an expense, and it still
 is, keeping the shoulders and the right-of-way mowed. The states were not
 prepared, including all the other states, to absorb that big cost at the time the
 roads were completed and turned over to the states.

B: Were you part of the delegation that went to see the federal highway
 administration or, was it called the federal department of transportation?

C: The federal bureau of roads at the time, I think. It has changed now. Yes, I was.

B: And so you were convinced even before they started construction on the
 interchange that it needed to have more lanes.

C: Absolutely. It was obvious that the traffic was going to bottle up right there
 coming from the north, coming from the east, coming from the south and the
 west. There just was not any way. Their minds were closed, and [there was]
 nothing we could do about it.