S.R. 64 construction focused on drainage

EAST COUNTY — Work to widen State Road 64 to six lanes from west of Carlton Arms Boulevard to Interstate 75 is well under way, but drivers-by won’t see any new pavement until January.

Contractors for the Florida Department of Transportation are about 16% complete with the project and are now focused on installing drainage.

“They’re laying pipe force main and storm drainage pipes,” Public Information Officer Trudy Gerena said. “They also are doing jack and bore, which is when they drill under the road and install a pipe that goes from one side of the road to the other, welding sections of pipe together.”

Excavation of a retention pond adjacent to Carlton Arms Boulevard — one of two ponds associated with the project — began last week, Gerena said. The pond by Carlton Arms, as well as another at Morgan Johnson Road, both should be finished by the end of the month. Other drainage-related work will take place throughout the duration of the project.

“The drainage takes up a lot of time,” said John Deese, project administrator for Target Engineering, the company overseeing the project for the FDOT. “It’s getting everything to that point (of paving the road) that takes time.”

Ninety-percent of utilities have been relocated since work commenced in April, and the remaining 10% will be relocated, as needed, and only if deemed necessary, Deese said.

The FDOT has scheduled lane closures from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. through July 20 to saw-cut the asphalt.

“They cut (where the outside shoulder of the road is) to make it a straight line, from which they will expand the lanes,” Gerena said. “They are widening to the outside. We did that to save a lot of the landscaping that’s in the medians.”

Gerena said the temporary nighttime closures might extend beyond July 20, however, because of the unpredictability of the weather.

Overall improvements associated with the widening project include milling and resurfacing the existing roadway and widening the outside to accommodate three 12-foot-wide travel lanes, a five-foot bike lane and outside curb and gutter with drainage swales and a sidewalk in both directions.

Better Roads Inc. is completing the work and also will be installing force mains and waterlines for Manatee County as part of FDOT’s contract, Deese said.

FDOT officials had been working rigorously on the S.R. 64 widening project for about two years before public meetings and construction began.

The widening and paving of State Road 64 in the East County is slated to start in January, and the project is expected to be finished in summer 2013. Once finished, the widened roadway will provide a continuous six-lane connection from downtown Bradenton to I-75.

For information about the project, visit dot.state.fl.us.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

By the Numbers
35,000 — In cubic yards, the amount of dirt expected to be removed from the ponds and roadway as part of the project.
28,000 — In cubic yards, the amount of dirt to be used in the widening of State Road 64.
6,000 — In tons, the amount of asphalt to be used for the project.
3 — Number of phases for the project.
2.5 — In miles, length of roadway being widened.