Manatee County may add road projects to plan

Where Upper Manatee River Road meets 10th Avenue East, Windsong Acres resident Arlan Cummings has the perfect view of his community’s battle with traffic.

His house is on that corner, and each day he witnesses the congestion as two lanes merge into one between State Road 64 and 10th Avenue East.

A turn lane running adjacent to the other two lanes complicates matters as drivers jockey for position, even if they aren’t turning, during commute hours.

When Manatee County improved Upper Manatee River Road, Cummings expected more lanes. The curbing and sidewalks were brought up to standard, but no lanes were added.

“It’s bumper to bumper,” Cummings said. “Four-laning [the road] would make a big difference in moving traffic through.”

Widening the 2-mile stretch between S.R. 64 and the Fort Hamer Bridge into a four-lane roadway is a concept Manatee County transportation officials are considering.

During a County Commission workshop on transportation March 3, commissioners voiced concerns about three roadways — Upper Manatee River and Lorraine roads in the Lakewood Ranch area and Ellenton-Gillette Road in Ellenton — that need attention. Commissioners were divided on whether to use revenues from the infrastructure sales tax for such projects, and County Administrator Cheri Coryea said she plans to have the board consider those projects individually in the next few months.

Manatee County staff members are scheduled to present their five-year Capital Improvement Plan to commissioners at the end of May.

Coryea said that for the past 20 years, Manatee County has grown between 5,000 and 6,000 people annually. However, over the past four years, that figure has doubled to 10,000 per year.

“We recognize we have intense growth,” Coryea said. “We can do this now — a mid-year course correction. If we need to do it [now], we want to do it.”

The infrastructure sales tax, which was approved by voters in 2016 and went into effect Jan. 1, 2017, was created to help the county catch up on much-needed infrastructure projects. Nearly 200 projects were identified. Coryea said if the board decides to realign priorities for those dollars, no projects would be bumped off the list, though the timing might be altered.

Public Works Director Chad Butzow said for Upper Manatee River Road, the plan would be to create a new project to allow the county to start designing it as a four-lane road (two lanes in each direction), which should improve the flow of traffic south from the Fort Hamer Bridge to S.R. 64. Selecting a design engineer would take up to six months, and construction could not start until late 2021.

He said he anticipates that four lanes on Upper Manatee River Road would reduce backup on southbound Upper Manatee River Road to S.R. 64 by 50%.

“We’d be able to get more cars through the intersection,” Butzow said.

Coryea said she expects to bring back the idea to the board hopefully in about a month.

Waterlefe resident Ken Bumgarner said he believed that Waterlefe residents, including himself, would support increasing the roadway to four lanes.

A new residential community — Water Color Place — is under construction for 1,400 homes at buildout, and Davis Development is constructing another 400 apartment units just south of Waterlefe Golf and River Club.

Increasing Upper Manatee River Road to four lanes is not in the county’s five-year plan for capital projects.

County commissioners have also expressed concerns about Lorraine Road, and Coryea said improving the roadway from two to four lanes between state roads 64 and 70 can be another item for the board’s consideration.

Butzow and Coryea said the county’s transportation staff believes the opening of the Rye Road/White Eagle Boulevard roundabout on S.R. 64, as well as future signalization and opening of extensions of 44th Avenue East and Rangeland Parkway, off Lorraine Road, should change current traffic patterns and divert more drivers away from the two-lane Lorraine Road. The future openings of Bourneside Boulevard and Uihlein Road, both which will run parallel with Lorraine Road, should also help.