- December 26, 2024
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The bad news for construction-weary residents of Sarasota is that there are plenty of road projects on the horizon here.
The good news that most of the projects are five to eight years — and beyond — from breaking ground.
That was the dichotomy presented to Sarasota City Commissioners on Monday by Alvimarie Corales, the city’s chief transportation planner, in her annual report of the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization 2023 Transportation Project Priority List.
Prepared by the region’s requisite planning body that covers both Sarasota and Manatee counties, the list highlights all road projects in various stages of the planning pipeline, more than 20 within the city limits.
"A lot of the projects look like they're imminent, like they’re going to happen any second now and I know some of the residents are suffering from construction fatigue,” said Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch. “This is not all happening in the next week. These these are really long-term plans and the funding and the permitting, it all takes takes time to get into place.”
Most of the road construction projects, not including various traffic management infrastructure upgrades, within the city on the MPO 2045 plan show a start date of 2030 and beyond. Those range from intersection improvements at University Parkway/U.S. 41 at $2.34 million to shared-use paths between U.S. 41 and Interstate 75 along Fruitville Road and University Parkway at $14.54 million.
The report included the 10 priority projects in the Sarasota In Motion plan. They include:
The project includes walking and biking connections throughout the city. Treatments may include off-road trails, protected bike lanes, wayfinding signage, sidewalk widening and implementation of multimodal connections plan.
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike
Project score: 85/100
Treatments may include wider sidewalks, protected bike lanes, on-street parking, landscaping, decorative lighting, street furniture, ADA improvements, roundabouts, undergrounding of utilities and multi-use trails.
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike, car
Project score: 80/100
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike
Project score: 78/100
From Fruitville Road to the south city limit. Potential improvements may include:
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike, car
Project score: 77/100
May include trolleys or other large, medium or small vehicles; covered stations; transit vehicle priority; pedestrian crossings; pedestrian access and multimodal/micromobility hubs at key destinations. Provide high frequency service with extended hours of operations.
Transit circulators to connect:
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bus
Project score: 77/100
Install new roundabout at the intersection of Cocoanut Avenue and Second Street to improve vehicle flow and pedestrian safety. Improvements may include:
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike, car
Project score: 73/100
Fruitville Road from U.S. 41 to U.S. 301. Improvements may include:
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike, bus, car
Project score: 73/100
Main Street from U.S. 41 to U.S. 301. Treatments may include:
Primary modes: Pedestrian, car
Project score: 71/100
State Road 789 from U.S. 41 to Washington Drive. Corridor bridges enhanced with dedicated lanes for walking, biking and transit vehicles.
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike, bus, car
Project score: 71/100
From the bay front to Orange Avenue. Improvements may include:
Primary modes: Pedestrian, bike, car
Project score: 68/100
Project scores are based on a scale of 100 with 20 points maximum each in five categories.
The Sarasota/Manatee long-range transportation plan is updated every five years and spans a 25-year transportation project plan within Sarasota and Manatee counties, and jurisdictions within them.
"It also lists projects for federal and state funding to be submitted as project priorities,” Corales said. “The MPO project priorities list gets updated annually and we submit annually. The projects need to be in the long-range transportation plan in order to be eligible for MPO funding.”
