Regional transportation group holds well-attended workshop on road projects last week
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Members of the Capital Regional Transportation Planning Agency were in Crawfordville last week to get public input on area projects – and two of the top four projects were in Wakulla County.
One is the expansion of U.S. 319 from Wakulla Arran Road to East Ivan – basically from the realigned Whiddon Lake Road to continue the four-laning down the McDonalds. The estimated cost of the project is $101.6 million.
That project is ranked No. 2 on the list, behind a Leon County expansion of Woodville Highway from Capital Circle SE to Gaile Avenue and Gaile Avenue to Paul Russell Road. Estimated cost for that project is $68.4 million.
The third project on the list is an Orange Avenue expansion in Tallahassee.
The fourth project is the expansion of U.S. 319 from the Wakulla County line to LL Wallace Road and up to where the highway is four lanes. While that project is in Leon County, it is a bottleneck from four-lanes to two lanes at the county line, and then back to four lanes. The estimated cost of that 3 mile expansion is $83.7 million.
The workshop, held at the public library on Tuesday, June 4, was attended by about a dozen citizens and county staff as people came and left.
The main question for many people is when will the current project to expand 319 be finished? Staff with CRTPA said it was a question for the state Department of Transportation, although some county staff said DOT’s best estimate of when the road will be finished – at least to Bloxham Cutoff– is the end of the year.
