Turn lane proposed for Gulf of Mexico Drive

Update: this story has been corrected from a previous version. A formal proposal to build a center-turn lane on Gulf of Mexico Drive extends from an area adjacent to Country Club Shores to a spot less than a mile to the north. Residents have requested an island-length lane, but there has been no action on such a plan. A story in the May 3 Observer about the proposal was incorrect.

The town of Longboat Key is in talks with the Florida Department of Transportation about widening Gulf of Mexico Drive to allow for a center turn lane adjacent to Country Club Shores, on the south end of the island.

The project, estimated to cost $1.3 million, is in a conceptual design phase between the town and the FDOT to determine what the road needs to look like and whether the project is a priority for state funding, said Public Works Director Isaac Brownman.

But unless the town receives funding from FDOT, the project may not begin for a couple years, Brownman said. The determination of what the road will look like is now in the hands of FDOT — the town sent a letter dated April 14 to the department with suggestions about how wide town staff think the road should be.

Those suggestions include two 11-foot-wide north and southbound lanes (one foot narrower than the lanes as they exist now), two six-foot-wide bicycle lanes on either side of the road and a 10-foot-wide center turn lane, according to renderings.

Town officials are hoping that FDOT will offer funding for the project but remain skeptical about the prospect, Town Manager Tom Harmer said. Preliminary conversations with FDOT have shown that the project may not be a priority for the department because it doesn’t believe that the project is required to enhance public safety, Harmer said.

“The town created this priority to say ‘this is important,’ ” he said.

Lynn Larson, a former town commissioner and Country Club Shores resident, said that installing a lane for turning into and out of her neighborhood is a matter of safety. A third turn lane along the entirety of the island, as has been proposed informally, might not be necessary, Larson said.

The turn lane, Larson said, would also help with traffic that often gets delayed when residents and visitors are turning left from the southbound lane into Country Club Shores.

Dr. Jim Whitman, who lives in Sleepy Lagoon, said that a turn lane along the entirety of the island would eliminate drivers’ access to passing.

“We should have that discussion for sure before we eliminate all two-lane blacktop that you can pass in at this time,” Whitman said.