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Stretch project
among 'worst'
By Kevin Wadlow
Senior Staff Writer
kwadlow@keynoter.com
A plan to widen
U.S. 1 between Key Largo and Florida City ranks among the worst road
projects in the U.S., a Washington, D.C.,-based group said this week.
The state
Department of Transportation's "proposal is purported to increase safety
and improve hurricane evacuation, but [some residents worry it] would
instead increase traffic crashes and trigger more growth in the area,"
according to the organization Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The widening of the 18-Mile Stretch was listed
among 27 projects in "Road to Ruin" report, representing "the most
wasteful and environmental harmful highways in the U.S."
The updated version of "Road to Ruin" (a previous
edition also listed the 18-Mile Stretch) was timed to coincide with
congressional action on a massive transportation bill.
Upper Keys
anti-widening activists John Hammerstrom and Charles Causey were among
those "nominating" the Stretch project for the list. It was included in
"Road to Ruin" after being "researched by Taxpayers for Common Sense and
Friends of the Earth," according to a group statement.
Causey and Hammerstrom argue the proposed
project, costing an estimated $150 million to $170 million, relies on an
outdated environmental-impact statement, and ignores other obstacles to
hurricane evacuation throughout Monroe County and in Florida City.
"DOT's two main issues - hurricane evacuation and
traffic safety - can be addressed with improvements to the road they
have now," said Causey. "We feel the [evacuation] capacity argument is
weak. It doesn't hold any water at all."
"We don't get any
hurricane-evacuation benefits from this project until they do a whole
bunch of other projects" in the Keys and Florida City, Hammerstrom said.
State DOT officials talk about adding lanes
through Florida City, he said, "but they've got serious issues [in
Florida City] that haven't been resolved, everything from environmental
and wetlands to utility and right-of-way issues."
A drawing of a "typical" cross-section of the
highway between Florida City and Key Largo shows a 12-foot-wide
southbound lane, separated from the 12-foot-wide northbound lane by a
median of 14 feet and a raised concrete barrier. A 10-foot-wide shoulder
on the northbound side would be paved and used for emergency evacuation.
Causey and
Hammerstrom said the "evacuation lane" could eventually become a new
highway lane to accommodate more traffic. DOT dropped a proposed
southbound shoulder because state engineers deemed it "too dangerous" as
an illegal passing lane.
"When northbound traffic stacks up on a Sunday,
somebody's going to run up that shoulder. Then crunch," said Causey.
A new Jewfish Creek Bridge would use a
65-foot-high arch to eliminate the existing drawspan that causes traffic
tie-ups on busy weekends.
The Monroe County Commission, the Key Largo
Chamber of Commerce and several local homeowners groups have endorsed
the current version of DOT plans for the Stretch.
Contingent on the approval of state and federal
permits, DOT plans to begin work on the widening by late 2005.
Construction will last several years, according to a DOT timetable.
"We've been looking at this project for a long
time and know it pretty well," said Causey. "It just doesn't do what
they say it will." |
