by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
By paving a half-mile stretch along Riverside Avenue, the Florida Department of Transportation appears to have buried local opposition to its road expansion plans under a swath of black asphalt.
FDOT contractors began paving the new road last week. The four-lane-wide stretch laid down last week will lead eventually to a six-lane Riverside, said FDOT spokesperson Mike Goldman. He said the State had worked too long and spent too much money to consider limiting construction to four lanes, as local advocates have requested. Both sides said the start of road work made the four-lane option unlikely.
Opposition to the $35 million project has gathered strength since a June 9 study from a prominent traffic engineer and City consultant recommended the street be kept to four lanes. In the last week the FDOT has been chastised by a State House member and threatened with legal action. However, after reviewing an estimate of the redesign costs, Goldman said the State decided to continue construction as planned.
GAI Consultants estimated that a work stoppage would cost the FDOT $15,000 daily. To change plans now would force work to stop while the project was redesigned, said Goldman. The weekly $75,000 bill would be paid at the expense of other Duval County transportation projects.
“The money would have to come from somewhere,” said Goldman. “And it would come from existing transportation projects already planned in the Duval County area.”
In an internal memo, FDOT Construction Engineer Allan Moyle said that $15,000 could be a lowball figure. Material and fuel prices could climb while the project is redesigned, forcing the State to pay more when work resumes.
Opponents suggested that the State started paving early to end the debate. Riverside/Avondale Preservation Chairman Trip Stanly said last week that laying the asphalt could represent the project’s point of no return.
“We’re in the 11th hour. Once the asphalt goes in, the party’s over,” said Stanly.
In a harshly-worded letter, dated Aug. 25, State Rep. Audrey Gibson said she understood that the road would not be built until October. “Yet at this writing, I am informed that an asphalt bed is to be laid by week’s end,” she said.
Goldman said the State was following its construction schedule.
“It has nothing to do with this controversy,” he said. “This has been part of the regular construction schedule.”
In pushing ahead with its six-lane plans, Gibson said the State was working against resolutions from the City Council and the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Both bodies recommended the FDOT work within guidelines set by Walter Kulash, an Orlando-based traffic engineer who is consulting on the City’s plans to revitalize the Brooklyn neighborhood surrounding Riverside. Kulash’s study said a six-lane road would sever Brooklyn from the river and hinder the City’s efforts to turn around the neighborhood.
In a written response to Gibson, Schroder said the study presented only a “draft concept,” that could still be months away from leaving the drawing board. He said the study based its conclusions on vague objectives like “creating a park-like atmosphere.” He said the study lacked data on how the new design would affect traffic.
Traffic counts on Riverside don’t currently demand six lanes, but Goldman said the project was being built to accommodate the area’s future needs.
The neighborhood advocates now opposing the project had ample opportunity to influence the design, according to FDOT records. They show public hearings for the project beginning in 1992. The FDOT held four public meetings from October 1992 to October 2000. Goldman said Riverside/Avondale Preservation was present at several of the meetings.
“If all they wanted was four lanes and some landscaping, they should have told us back then,” said Goldman. “I guarantee you we wouldn’t have spent near the money we have.”
The FDOT has spent $25 million so far, most of it to secure and prepare the land.
Kay Ehas, an administration division chief for the property appraiser and RAP member, said it was only after Kulash released his study that opponents understood the severity of the problems the FDOT design would create.
“We don’t have the expertise to argue with the FDOT,” she said. “Until we saw Kulash’s study, all we had was an innate sense that what they were doing was wrong.”
Stanly said the land wouldn’t be wasted by a scaled-down design. He said four lanes and a landscaped median could be built now, with surplus land set aside for expansions as traffic counts make them necessary.
He said last week that opponents would seek a court order to stop construction of a six-lane road. The neighborhood groups haven’t decided how to respond to FDOT. But Ehas said RAP would continue fighting.
“We don’t consider this a dead issue,” she said. “It’s too important.”
RAP will continue to try to muster local political support for a redesign. Mayor John Peyton’s priority is keeping the project on schedule according to a spokesperson.