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SW 62nd Boulevard Connector Road Planned
Posted on Nov 14, 2008 by The Woodlands of Gainesville
Traffic flow is about to improve in front of The Woodlands of Gainesville. City commissioners approved a deal that would expand SW 62nd Boulevard to four lanes and include bus lanes at stops. See article below.
Deal OK’d for 4-lane connector
By Megan Rolland
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, November 14, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
After an eight-month delay, the Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission have agreed on a route for a north-south connector between Butler Plaza and The Oaks Mall.
“I don’t want to continue meeting on this issue here,” said County Commissioner Rodney Long. “I think I’ve been on this board eight years discussing this issue.”
Under Thursday’s agreement, the connector will be four lanes with the intent – if feasible – of acquiring enough land to have two lanes for bus rapid transit in the median.
Known as the SW 62nd Boulevard Connector, the road was identified as a federal priority in 2005 and 2006 with $8.5 million in earmarked money – money set aside by lawmakers for specific projects.
Some of that money was spent on a study to identify potential paths the road might take, environmental and historical obstacles and traffic needs.
The remaining $6.3 million will go toward three “interim projects” also approved Thursday by the joint city-county Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization.
Those projects – a smart bus bay and several additional turning lanes – will help alleviate traffic congestion in the area in the short term, while funding is identified for construction of the connector road.
Once additional funding is identified for the road – which it is estimated will cost $87 million – the route selected Thursday night will follow SW 62nd Boulevard from Newberry Road to SW 20th Avenue.
There the route will travel along Interstate 75 – near the Cabana Beach Apartments – and eventually cut south through property owned by Butler Enterprises, connecting with Archer Road at SW 37th Boulevard.
City Commissioner Thomas Hawkins was the lone dissenter of that route, preferring another option that travels from Archer Road along existing roadways to SW 63rd Boulevard.
“Where we should make the improvements in the short term is improving the existing roadway with an emphasis on transit,” said Hawkins, whose favored route would improve SW 20th Avenue and SW 43rd Street rather than create new roads.
Hawkins said he wanted to select a route that would emphasize bus rapid transit, which as the name suggests would have lanes dedicated to public transportation to expedite and economize trips.
Both Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan and Commissioner Lauren Poe agreed that there needed to be more of an emphasis on the bus rapid transit element in the selected option.
“We want to have bus rapid transit in this corridor, and we’d like to have four lanes of transit, but our priority is bus rapid transit,” Hanrahan said.
Poe emphasized his concern over the sheer size of a six-lane road in an envisioned walkable urban student village.
“It seems like when we have six-lane corridors, they don’t seem to work,” Poe said. “When we have this discussion, I think we need to be careful and talk about things more frankly if we’re talking about a six-lane road.”
The county commissioners present – Rodney Long, Cynthia Chestnut, Lee Pinkoson and Paula DeLaney – placed more emphasis on having at least four lanes dedicated to personal automobiles.
They cited projects that would soon increase traffic beyond a two-lane road capacity.
Two projects that will have significant impact on transportation are going through the first stages of state review. One is a proposed expansion north of Butler Plaza.
The connector road will cut right through the 150 acres that Butler Enterprises has proposed to develop into 1.3 million square feet of retail space.
The second is a proposed residential condominium development with retail on 300 acres located west of SW 34th Street at Hull Road. Known as Creekside at Beville Run, the project is in the student village area designated for dense housing.
“Beville Run, and the student village area, and the remaining part of Butler Plaza – there’s going to be a whole bunch of capacity added to that area,” Pinkoson said. “More than just a two-lane width. If we build in the current conditions, the road fails. We do need the four lanes, plus do whatever we can for multimodal transportation.”
County Commissioner Mike Byerly, who has been a vocal opponent of putting four lanes through the area, did not attend the meeting.
City Commissioner Jack Donovan also was not present.
He had publicly questioned the need for the road last week and while proposing that the resources could be better used in the east side of Gainesville.
Also absent was City Commissioner Craig Lowe.
Tagged: gainesville city commission, sw 62nd boulevard, butler plaza, oaks mall, student village
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