Roads take back seat to trails in Manatee transportation priorities

As impact fees are set to increase Sept. 9, Manatee County commissioners are finding ways to spend that extra revenue, and the trail system is at the top of the list.

During a Sept. 3 workshop that discussed the future of the Manatee County Trailways Master Plan, Commission Chair George Kruse said it was time to shift focus from building more new roads for $8.5 million a mile and complete the trail system that was first introduced in 1999.

The estimated cost to complete the 140-mile, countywide network is $130 million. The system will eventually link into Sarasota's Legacy Trail and the state’s Shared Use Non-motorized Trail or SUN Trail.

To compare building a trail to a roadway — widening a 2.8-mile portion of Lorraine Road between State Road 64 and State Road 70 is projected to cost about $200 million. A 15-foot trail on Bourneside Boulevard that covers the about seven-mile corridor between University Parkway and State Road 64 is projected to cost under $3 million.

Transportation Planning Manager Clarke Davis noted that the Bourneside trail is a partnership between the county and Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, so it costs less than what the county would normally pay because SMR had already planned for a five-foot sidewalk.

A typical shared use path alongside a road costs about $2.1 million per mile.

“You’re not going to keep building roads to fix traffic,” Kruse said. “Multimodal fees can be 100% used for sidewalks and trails and bike lanes and everything else under the sun, so that opens up an immense bucket of money.”

Multimodal fees are built into impact fees. They used to be labeled “transportation fees” and could only be spent on new roads, but multimodal is a catchall that includes anything that will take residents from Point A to Point B.

The average trail width is intended to be at least 12 feet, but Davis said there will be pinch points where there isn’t enough space to meet that minimum.

"I truly think the best use of our dollars is to build out a system that's going to allow an alternative transportation system for the good of our traffic and infrastructure at a fraction of the cost," Kruse said.

The major trail discussed for East County was the one that runs along Bourneside Boulevard. SMR has already completed a 10-foot sidewalk on the west side of the road and the 15-foot asphalt path will run along the east side.

The path along Bourneside Boulevard is completed between State Road 64 and State Road 70. The details of extending it to University Parkway are still being finalized between SMR and Manatee County.