Tallahassee: Roads

[Florida]

I know there's not much talk about this, but I really think Monroe N. Monroe could use some sidewalks. There are just way too many businesses along the roadway, bus stops and such for there to be no safe way for a pedestrian to walk up and down this road.

[Aerobird]

I agree. Also, in places where they have the centre turn lanes, they should have pedestrian islands like they started putting in A1A in Daytona Beach Shores back when we lived in that area.

[Aerobird]

Somewhere south of Tallahassee...

The state is considering swapping US-98 and US-319 along their routes between the west end of Medart and St. Teresa Beach, or more precisely now the east end of SummerCamp. This would have 319 run along the coastal route (Coastal Highway) and 98 inland through Sopchoppy (Sopchoppy Highway), then to the new planned (St. Joe) inland routing of 98.

This discussion at the Wakulla County Commission meeting arose out of the fact that somebody noticed that the four-laning plans for 319/Crawfordville Highway called for the intersection with US-98 at the east end of Medart to be shifted east along 98 from its current location, to run directly into the bus entrance/exit of Wakulla High School. The commissioners would rather have the intersection shifted slightly west/south to align with Jack Crum Road (CR-375).

(Wakulla News 21 June edition)

EDITED: it's the State proposing the U.S. route swap, not the county.

[psycuda]

I know there's not much talk about this, but I really think Monroe N. Monroe could use some sidewalks. There are just way too many businesses along the roadway, bus stops and such for there to be no safe way for a pedestrian to walk up and down this road.

[Aerobird]

According to an article in the Democrap, it looks like the Red Hills toll road is D.O.A.

linka

[poonther]

According to an article in the Democrap, it looks like the Red Hills toll road is D.O.A.

linka

[mstan2685]

For those of us who travel I-10 daily, the City of Tallahassee has installed four live cameras along the construction route at each exit and also at the Meridian Road overpass. Check it out here:iGrid-An Exclusive Look At The Interstate 10 Project On a side note you will need to have your cookies enabled for your browser and a broadband connection.

[Glenn]

^ How Very Cool! Thanks so much for telling us about this MStan! I just saw a major accident almost occur while watching camera 1 as a van coming off I-10 pulled right out in front of a pickup truck headed North on Cap Circle....it was a very close call & strange feeling to actually witness that in real time.

[Florida]

The City is the BEST :spit flies out of mouth: !!!

I'm going to watch and see if I can't catch some excitement.

Thanks so much for sharing this with us MSTan!!

[Florida]

Tennessee Street (Near FSU)

[poonther]

The long awaited Orange Avenue extension begins Monday, July 23rd.

The city has entered into a contract with SANDCO Inc. for construction of the Orange Ave. extension. This project will extend Orange Ave. from just east of Blair Stone Road to Capital Circle Southeast. The project will also extend Paul Russell Road from Monday Road to Orange Ave. New stormwater ponds and utilities will be constructed along these new roadways. The extension will also include landscaped medians, bike lanes and sidewalks.

Has St. Joe started construction on the portion east of Cap. Circle to Fair Oaks yet?

[Aerobird]

The project will also extend Paul Russell Road from Monday Road to Orange Ave.

Er, that's a little confusing. I guess "new Orange" will veer south from "existing Paul Russell (east)" a bit east of Blair Stone, and "exisisting Paul Russell (east)" south/west of Monday Rd will be abandoned?

BTW, the traffic signals are up at Paul Russell (west) and Blair Stone, although they are still covered.

[Glenn]

^ That whole Orange Avenue, Paul Russell Road, Monday Road, then back to Orange Avenue thing is so confusing. I'm still trying to envision how it will all look & work, etc. Will the street signage change names that many times in such a short distance? Very confusing indeed!

Major site prep has been going on East of Cap Circle getting ready to bring Orange Avenue over to it's new intersection with Four Oaks Blvd, right where the new Elementary School "L" is being built. Orange Avenue has already been constructed within SouthWood from Four Oaks Blvd. East to just slightly beyond Mossy Creek Lane.

SouthWood_Map.pdf

SouthWood_Map.pdf

[poonther]

Thanks for the map of Southwood Glenn. Question on that: Are the roads shown on the detailed Southwood map, all the roads there will be on the property at build out? Or are those the paths of the existing roads and some of the ones they currently have planned? B/C in the long run, isn't Southwood gonna extend north of the New Orange Ave?

Now an Orange Ave. question: Will Paul Russell still be in two parts (the part north of Orange and the part west of Blair Stone) or will this project build a new part of Paul Russell to connect the two parts?

[gatoremt]

I see they are making big strides on I-10. I wonder when they are going to start working on the new on and off ramps at Thomasville Rd????

[poonther]

Mahan may get some Federal funds and StarMetro to get even more.

I wish they could have gotten more money for the widening of Mahan. As we've all stated before, they'll be sorry they only went w/4-laning Mahan and not 6-laning, but of course something is better than nothing. The report says that the project is budgeted for the fiscal yr 11-12. So after the typical delays before and during construction completion should be in what the yr 2016?

[Glenn]

Thanks for the map of Southwood Glenn. Question on that: Are the roads shown on the detailed Southwood map, all the roads there will be on the property at build out? Or are those the paths of the existing roads and some of the ones they currently have planned? B/C in the long run, isn't Southwood gonna extend north of the New Orange Ave?

Now an Orange Ave. question: Will Paul Russell still be in two parts (the part north of Orange and the part west of Blair Stone) or will this project build a new part of Paul Russell to connect the two parts?

[poonther]

No More New Interstate Exits For Tally says the ED of the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency. This is the same ED that fought hard to remove the Red Hills Parkway and its funding from long range plan and succeeded.

While I'm not for making the canopy roads exits, it wouldn't hurt for Tally to have another exit or two. Their fear which I understand is that folks will use I-10 for commuting purposes, but as FDOT is showing, people are already doing that. I'm all for upgrading local connecting roads (of course that will be hard fought by the NIMBYs) but when we all are stuck at the 5 entrance/exit ramps for Tally for hours during rush hour, we'll wish we had more options especially the two US 90 exits. These two are not being improved nor is 10 being widen in this area, but massive development is planned for both of these exits.

I am also surprised there was not mention of an exit one day for Welaunee Blvd. I do believe this is still planned for the future???

I don't know if I'm too keen on this ED for the regional Trans Planning Agency. It seems he comes from the Silly Ole Bob R. school of thought. But hey that's just my two cents.

[Florida]

Well I read what he said and I understand and agree with his view point. However, Mission is not a Canopy road and it can be widened, and it is heavily used by trucks turning on and off of Commonwealth Blvd. Everything from Coca Cola, Comcast, FedEx, to your frequent City Truck, or CSX vehicle. Mission would be a prime spot to insert another access point... if for nothing more than business purposes. I've seen it done in many cities around the country for far less important reasons.

As far as Welaunee Blvd is concerned, yes, I was bothered that it wasn't mentioned considering the amount of press the project has received.

[bighardrivesrule]

If Tallahassee had better connecting streets and or streets that could handle the capacity, people would not use I-10 as much. I live in the Killearn area and to get to the West or NorthWest side of town I-10 is really the only option. People living in Bradfordville have to drive all the way down to I-10 just to get to the other side of Lake Jackson or points North like Havana or take a dirt road (Orchard Pond). Tallahassee is laid out like a wagon wheel but the North side of the County is not connected to any where but I-10 and Capital Circle. This poor layout I think means that the Killearn area in the future will never have enough roads to handle all of the cars through it, Thomasville Road, Cap Circle, or I-10). It was built to be a bottle neck. If they don't build new exits they should at least build some sort of service road system parallel to I-10 so that residents and businesses can use them.

Oh but we would have to cut down some trees to do that. Boo Hoo to the tree hugers. If you want to see trees we have a National Forest that borders the City Limits go live in it.

If you cut a tree down replace it with another one further from the ROW of the road being built, its that simple.

[Aerobird]

An exit at Mission would have to be a half-diamond (or parclo ) to the east because of the railroad. But that's the direction most of the traffic would be going to/coming from anyway.

Centerville at I-10 is a canopy road? Since when? Plenty of room there for an exit - even a conventional diamond - without chopping too much wood. A SPUI would cut even less.

Miccosukee and Old Bainbridge aren't really doable. Meridian - marginal for a SPUI.

Welaunee - ???

[bighardrivesrule]

Check out this discussion over in the USA South forum about future Interstate construction in the south. Once again Tallahassee is the red-headed step child. With the right support there is no reason why we can't be a premier city in the south. Getting left out of these roads projects hurts us and our image in the south.

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry832015

[poonther]

I've been reading that thread too bhdr. I think a lot of it is wishful thinking.

[gatoremt]

If Tallahassee had better connecting streets and or streets that could handle the capacity, people would not use I-10 as much. I live in the Killearn area and to get to the West or NorthWest side of town I-10 is really the only option. People living in Bradfordville have to drive all the way down to I-10 just to get to the other side of Lake Jackson or points North like Havana or take a dirt road (Orchard Pond). Tallahassee is laid out like a wagon wheel but the North side of the County is not connected to any where but I-10 and Capital Circle. This poor layout I think means that the Killearn area in the future will never have enough roads to handle all of the cars through it, Thomasville Road, Cap Circle, or I-10). It was built to be a bottle neck. If they don't build new exits they should at least build some sort of service road system parallel to I-10 so that residents and businesses can use them.

Oh but we would have to cut down some trees to do that. Boo Hoo to the tree hugers. If you want to see trees we have a National Forest that borders the City Limits go live in it.

If you cut a tree down replace it with another one further from the ROW of the road being built, its that simple.

[Aerobird]

Is there any possibility that they're building slip ramps from I-10 to Lakeshore Drive, or is that well-defined dirt "exit" on the NE corner of the crossing just for the construction equipment?

BTW - traffic light at Blair Stone and Paul Russell (west) is now flashing.