Yesterday I received the following email from Mr. Gus Pego, FDOT District 6 Secretary:
As you know, at the public information meeting on March 30th for the resurfacing project on Sunset Drive from SW 84th Place to 69 Avenue, the department received numerous inquiries and requests regarding the configuration of the roadway to address the needs of bicyclists.
The design presented at that meeting reflected a minor pavement widening into the roadway median and a reduction in lane width of the inside travel lane in order to implement a wide outside lane in each direction (14 feet in width) to provide a bicycle facility along the corridor. A wide outside lane is one in which the motorist and bicyclist travel in the outside lane together. This meets the requirements of a bicycle facility per the department’s standards.
At the public meeting, the bicycle community requested that the District evaluate an option that would provide a delineated lane for bicyclists.
The department evaluated two different options:
- Implementation of 4 foot undesignated bike lane in each direction
- Implementation of a 5 foot designated bike lane in each direction.
Each of these options would require the addition of significant amounts of pavement to the corridor. As such, new drainage facilities would be needed to treat the additional stormwater runoff resulting from the new pavement areas. Normally french drains would be used for this purpose and environmental permits would be required. Given the project’s close proximity to the South Wellfield protection area, the department’s research indicates that this type of drainage system is not feasible or permittable in this area, although any existing exfiltration trenches or slab covered trenches are “grandfathered-in. Only dry systems for treatment and attenuation (swales or ponds) which would not fit in the corridor without ROW acquisition could be permitted in this area. The additional pavement area would also require the implementation of concrete curb and gutter along the roadway edges due to the proximity to fixed objects along the roadway.
The current project budget is $3.5 Million. The two options cited above are estimated to cost $9.9 Million and $10.1 Million, respectively.
Due to the increased cost and probable drainage permitting issues cited above, the department is not able to implement a 4 foot undesignated bike lane or 5 foot designated bike lane as part of this project. Therefore, the current design of a 14 foot wide outside lane will be maintained; however the department will explore the possibility of installing signing to inform motorists that they need to provide a 3 foot clearance to bicycles and will also explore utilization of special pavement markings.”
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Where is the thinking outside the curblines? If they wanted to add a bike facility they could.
F en Dot strikes again!
Reduce the speed of posted travel on the roadway, make it safer for all and provide the ability designate the four foot extra roadway in the outside lane as a bikelane…or if not that, be bold and lay down the sharrow on the four extra feet and sign that! Mr.Pego alludes to this in his closing, but typically refuses to commit. Now, if the Department determined the road needed more car capacity, you know they would find a way and the money to make THAT happen….
Sadly, Ms. Moore’s point that this is a major route for non-motorized transit falls on deaf ears…. ((as did my cries for bike facilities to be included in the RRR project going on now on Collins Avenue and Indian Creek in middle Miami Beach. (This roadway pair has the ROW and the current project includes a massive drainage improvement project that could have easily accommodated two four foot wide, one way paths, but alas, the excuses outweighed the fact that this is the only North South road east of the intracostal)).
Faced with the opportunity of rebuilding roads where there could be room for all, F en Dot’s District Six approach is do nothing new, justify their decision by blaming DERM in may cases, and to just tell you not to ride that way, rather than do the right thing and promote alternative forms of transportation.
If this were Broward County, somehow I think the outcome would be different….
Why? Two words: Political Will.
April 29 is the next MPO meeting. Take this battle to the folks who think they control F $ Dot….
Thanks Felipe for keeping on this and The Rick…..
Thank you dot for
“however the department will explore the possibility of installing signing to inform motorists that they need to provide a 3 foot clearance to bicycles”
explore the possibility of signage? Preposterous !!!!!! I will sure explore other candidates!!!!!
[...] sad to see that FDOT has money to spend on theses megaprojects, yet it can’t come up with money for bike lanes on Sunset Drive. This goes to show where their priorities [...]
What’s the speed on Sunset Drive on the project corridor? If the design speed (which should match the posted speed) is 35 mph or lower, than there is another option permitted by FDOT standards: 10 ft. lanes. That would allow for a nice 4′ or 5′ bicycle lanes without any extra widening.
Speed limit is 40 mph. Design speed is closer to 50 mph.
[...] and here, where the outside lane is the lane that would be wide enough for a bicycle lane: FDOT: No Bicycle Lanes for Sunset Drive | Transit Miami And in Georgia, a recent report of the outside lane being closed for repair of a sink hole in the [...]