Hudson Bayou residents brace for Osprey closure

In January 2017, the city of Sarasota plans to begin an extensive construction effort along more than two miles of Osprey Avenue.

That project will extend from Main Street to Siesta Drive and is scheduled to continue through fall 2018. Broken into two phases, the construction will include infrastructure upgrades such as sidewalks, water mains and wastewater force mains.

The city is working to coordinate the construction with the needs of surrounding stakeholders. For example, the portion of Osprey Avenue near Southside Elementary School is scheduled for construction during summer break, and the construction near Southside Village is designed to minimize the impact during tourist season.

Almost three years after the city hired McKim and Creed to spearhead the beleaguered Lift Station 87 project, the engineering firm is finally prepared to begin a crucial phase of construction.

Even if everything goes according to plan, the construction will create one major issue: The Osprey Avenue bridge, located just south of Mound Street, is scheduled to be closed throughout at least April 2017.

On Saturday, the Hudson Bayou Neighborhood Association held its annual meeting, and the impending street closure was one of the primary topics of conversation among residents.

“The impacts to our neighborhood are potentially enormous,” said HBNA President Rob Patten. “People are still wanting to go to the bayfront, to the beaches, to St. Armands.”

Patten invited McKim and Creed Project Manager Robert Garland and city Project Manager Tony Centurione to speak at Saturday’s meeting.

The work requires microtunneling beneath the Hudson Bayou to install new pipes for the planned wastewater facility. The previous engineering firm was fired for its inability to complete this task, but McKim and Creed is working to finalize a construction schedule for this portion of the project within the next few weeks. Garland said that work should begin in late July or early August.

The project officials explained the city’s plans for managing traffic during construction — and said that more details on the design and timeline of the Lift Station 87 project are still forthcoming.

In November, project officials outlined the strategy for dealing with the bridge closure. The city will attempt to reroute all traffic to U.S. 41 via signalized roads, an attempt to avoid disruption to the residential streets in Hudson Bayou and other west-of-trail neighborhoods.

To achieve that goal, the city will post signs alerting drivers to the construction on Osprey, Mound and Tamiami Trail. If residents see an increased volume of cut-through traffic, the city will also consider installing temporary speed tables to discourage drivers from taking alternate routes through the neighborhood.

This initial phase of the lift station project could last even longer than officials hope. The contractor has 395 days to finish the project to “substantial completion,” and another 30 days to complete the work entirely. Although Garland targeted April for that substantial completion, that date remains variable.

“We’re currently finalizing that schedule with the contractor,” Garland said. “Throughout this process, we’ll continue to revise it.”

Since McKim and Creed came aboard in 2013, Garland has emphasized his desire to communicate effectively with residents. Once a construction date is finalized, he said, the project team will work to disseminate key information to people who could be affected by the project. Already, the group has committed to posting message board signs regarding the project at least 30 days before the work begins.

Bruce King, a sergeant with the Sarasota Police Department, said law enforcement officials would work with residents to monitor any potential issues associated with cut-through traffic. Hudson Bayou is one of many city neighborhoods that has raised concerns about the impacts of large trucks travelling down tree-lined residential streets.

“You have a problem even before you close the bridge,” King said. “You have a problem with trucks driving through the neighborhood, hitting power lines and clipping tree branches and so on.”
The microtunneling construction is the first of three phases for constructing Lift Station 87 at 1900 Mound St. in Luke Wood Park. The new wastewater facility is designed to replace the failing Lift Station 7, located just south of the Hudson Bayou at 935 Pomelo Ave.

At an August 2015 City Commission meeting, the Lift Station 87 team presented the last publicly updated timeline for the entire project. That schedule called for a final completion date of August 2020. On Saturday, Garland said he wasn’t certain what a more up-to-date timeline would indicate, but he’s hopeful that completion date will eventually be moved up.

The 2015 timeline called for Phase 2 of the project — the construction of the actual lift station facility — to begin in September of this year. Garland said he doesn’t expect to meet that aspect of timeline, but the project team is working to stagger the timeline so bidding for Phase 2 can begin as construction on Phase 1 is wrapping up.

The project team is currently working on completing the design for the building itself, which Garland hopes will lead to a quicker-than-anticipated construction schedule for Phase 2.

The winning bid for construction of Phase 1 was $7.7 million, which is $1.7 million less than the original budget estimate. An August 2015 estimate projected the overall project cost at $32 million — more than double the initial budget, with a targeted completion date nearly a decade later than originally anticipated.

For the neighbors that will be impacted by the project, there’s not much to do other than wait and hope everything proceeds according to schedule. Already, Hudson Bayou residents have plans to reconvene with Lift Station 87 personnel to discuss the impacts of the bridge closure and any changes they may deem necessary.

“The process is going to take a year,” Patten said. “And we can’t wait a year to let people know how we feel.”