- May 1, 2024
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A center turn lane project for the stretch of Gulf of Mexico Drive near Country Club Shores is one step closer to the town’s vision for a complete street corridor.
The project, in the works for more than seven years, is scheduled to begin construction this summer as long as everything goes smoothly over the next couple months. Its purpose is to create a center turn lane for a roughly 0.88-mile stretch of GMD.
According to Director of Public Works Isaac Brownman, the Florida Department of Transportation has agreed to fund the estimated $1.4 million construction cost.
This was something committed to verbally about three or four years ago, he said. But when it became a part of the FDOT’s five-year work plan about two years ago, that’s when the commitment became official.
Usually, similar projects would require a match in funds from the town. But this one doesn’t, because the town already funded the entire $1.3 million design.
Brownman said that in early discussions with the FDOT, the town asked if the design funding could count as the required match, and the FDOT agreed.
The $1.3 million was mostly funded in 2020-2021, coming from the streets fund.
The town also budgeted $200,000 for the project in fiscal year 2024, in case the bids come in at a higher cost.
If the bids do come in higher than the budgeted $1.4 million from the FDOT, Brownman said the town would first petition the FDOT to add funding to the project. If that fails, then the town has the $200,000 to fall back on.
Right now, Brownman said the town is working with the FDOT to finalize a joint project agreement.
A joint project agreement is something required of a local agency in order to use FDOT funding for a project on a state road.
Assuming that the joint project agreement is finalized by the end of February, Brownman said the next step will be to put the project out for bid in April.
In May, the plan is to confirm the lowest and most responsive bidder. If that falls within the budget, then the project will continue to the Construction Engineering and Inspection phase.
The goal, then, is to have construction begin around June.
“We’re going to work really hard with our contractor. My goal will be that they build the extra lane first so that we can maintain two directions of traffic as much as possible,” Brownman said.
Doing construction mostly over the summer is also ideal to avoid peak season, he added.
Overall, the construction should take around six to eight months.
Brownman said this is a project that has been in discussion since before it was initiated in 2016.
The initial request from the town was to create a single, long left-turn lane through widening and additional paving to the west.
But, Brownman said early on that the FDOT was opposed to the idea of a single lane due to operational concerns.
Additionally, if the project was just to add more pavement and restripe the road, the FDOT would have deemed it maintenance. That classification would have forced the department and town to look at the process differently.
“(The FDOT) thought that our turn lane was changing enough of the nature of the roadway, and they said they will not review this as a simple maintenance project,” Brownman said.
Because the department would not review it as just maintenance, it was necessary to add more elements, according to Brownman.
The recommendation then was to break the lane into multiple, individual turn lanes with some raised medians throughout. Another key addition was the widening of bike lanes.
The FDOT also advised the town that, in order to complete the project, that strip of GMD would need to be milled and repaved.
Brownman said, at the time, the town wasn’t fond about the changes to the project, but now it has developed into aligning with the town’s complete street vision.
