Elected leaders in Okeechobee County are hoping they can appeal to the state to stop a planned road project on a busy thoroughfare through the county and state.
David Hazellief, chairman of Okeechobee’s Board of County Commissioners plans to send a letter to the state this week asking department of transportation decision makers to get with county staff and hammer out a different plan for State Road 70.
At a recent presentation to the county, state workers explained they are trying to reduce accidents and fatalities on the busy highway.
State Road 70 is one of only a few coast-to coast highways in the state and it is used frequently by many long-haul trucks.
The state’s plan is to put a mile long-stretch of the highway on what’s called a road diet.
Road diets are meant to slow traffic. The state thinks it can do this by narrowing each of the travel lanes by a foot.
Also included in the road diet is the elimination of eight left turn lanes in this roughly 1-mile stretch. Raised medians would replace those lanes.
Slower roads and fewer places to cross over four lanes of traffic improves safety, the state contends.
But county board chairman Hazellief is troubled by the plan and says it could have the opposite effect.
"I think they totally missed our needs, and hopefully they can respect our concerns and change it," he told WGCU.
At the forefront of his concerns are what are certain to be increased travel times for emergency responders.
Under the plan, fire trucks leaving from the station near off of Highway 70 would need to travel an additional quarter of a mile and then make a U-turn at the nearest stoplight, Hazellief said.
In his letter, Hazellief has asked the state to cease any more work on the plan until decision makers can come back to Okeechobee and discuss the plan and safety options at length with those in the know.
"With all due respect to the DOT [ department of transportation] they really tried to enhance the traffic flow and listen our concerns," he wrote. "But if you're not here every day, driving in the traffic, there may be situations out there you aren't aware of if you just pass through our county,"
Hazellief told WGCU: "So we would like them to listen to not only to us, but to the citizens about these troubled places, and work on those more so than a road that probably doesn't need any change."
Hazellief also believes local business will suffer financially if access from the highway is limited to only one-way of travel.
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