ENGLEWOOD — State transportation officials listened to comments from Englewood business owners and scaled down plans for medians running through the heart of the community’s business district on State Road 776.
State officials are continuing with plans to build raised, grassy medians on a two-mile portion of S.R. 776 just north of the Charlotte County line.
However, the newest set of preliminary drawings, presented at a meeting Monday afternoon at the Englewood Chamber of Commerce, show shorter stretches of medians and more room for turning — something the business community asked for at a similar meeting last March.
The Florida Department of Transportation project is in a four-year design phase, designed to help improve safety on the road, officials say. FDOT employees are working with consultants to finalize concepts in the next three months, said FDOT District Safety Administrator Keith Robbins.
FDOT PLANS FOR SR 776
The project for S.R. 776, also known as Indiana Avenue in the area, starts at the Charlotte-Sarasota County line and ends at the entrance to the Tangerine Woods community.
Raised medians, broken up by directional turn lanes, will replace the existing center two-way left-turn lanes along the stretch. The middle lane is also known by its nickname, the “suicide lane.”
According to FDOT, the project design will cost $448,000, and construction costs are expected to be $2 million. Officials want to do the median construction around the same time that 2-mile segment of highway will get its scheduled repaving.
FDOT officials said they really need to wrap up the design phase of the project no later than this summer for the project to progress on time.
To justify the need for medians, transportation officials and consultants cite a five-year crash report (2015-19) showing 198 crashes, 141 that resulted in injury and 36 that were fatal or resulted in severe injuries along that stretch of S.R. 776.
The leading cause of these crashes are vehicles turning left or trying to cross four or five lanes of traffic at various points, the data show.
Medians are intended to reduce conflict points over a standard four-lane roadway. FDOT has found that the fewer conflict points, the more likely safety will increase.
The proposed medians would help to correct these safety concerns by reducing crashes by 41%, injury by 42% and fatalities/severe injuries by 50%, the FDOT states in its plan.
UNHAPPY WITH MEDIANS
FDOT’s original plans called for several hundred yards of medians that severely limited access to dozens of businesses, such as Pope Insurance, Bliss Dermatology and the ELKS Lodge.
Doug Izzo, Englewood Chamber of Commerce executive director, asked FDOT officials and consultants to come to Englewood and listen to the business owners. In March, they did just that.
“We got a lot of feedback from you guys and did some more adjustments,” Robbins said.
For the most part, the additional openings provide access to at least some of the businesses along the road.
Carolyn Pope was happy to see the new additions.
“They did move it down a little bit from last time,” Pope said.
FDOT wasn’t able to open the median for the ELKS Lodge due to the high number of accidents in that area, but Exalted Ruler Gabrielle Kelly said it shouldn’t be a major issue for them.
“It’s not going to be a problem, I don’t think,” Kelly said. “We don’t really have any big trucks coming in for shipments.”
Kelly said that patrons will just have to do a turn around when making a left after the medians get put in.
On the other hand, Billy Swink said he foresees a lot of difficulties with his large truck shipments for Babe’s ACE Hardware, just down the street.
“The reality of an 18-wheeler whether it’s groceries or hardware is when you get on a curve and go around, you can do it, but your shipment is going to go all over the place,” Swink said, swinging his hands up and down. “You’re going to be thinking ‘I’ve got to restack a lot of stuff in this trailer.’”
Making a U-turn with a large semi-truck is extremely difficult on the driver, according to Swink. With the addition of protected bike lanes, that makes the lanes even more narrow.
“It’s even harder when there’s traffic coming, especially during season,” he said.
Robbins said he would continue to work on the concept plans with his team to see how they could accommodate Swink, and keep crash data in mind.
Other businesses like Englewood Glass and Mirror got a little more room for supply trucks in the updated drawings.
Crash data collected by Amara Decicco, traffic/ITS Specialist with Gannett Fleming, found that between the 2014 and 2018, there were of 216 crashes, averaging around 43.2 a year. Decicco did say that other years were supplemented into the data and crashes were not limited to serious/fatal.
The FDOT Collision Diagram also shows the intersection of Dearborn Street and S.R. 776 to have a high rate of crashes.
Izzo said that as long as the businesses are OK with the new concepts, then that’s good.
“The changes that FDOT provided us today are night and day from when we started this process,” Izzo said. “There are very few medians that affect the egress and ingress to businesses.”
For businesses like Babe’s Hardware, Izzo hopes that FDOT will continue to work on a solution.
“They’re looking at the crash data, but you know, you have to look at the real-life scenario, too, and if they can’t get their shipments and what are they supposed to do,” Izzo said. “There needs to be consistent concessions made for that.”
State officials say a study shows about 80% of drivers going through that part of State Road 776 are going 53 mph, when the speed limit is 45. Keith said they have added protected bike lanes that will narrow the lanes a bit and cause people to approach the stretch of road a bit slower.
The FDOT is also recommending dropping the speed limit to 40 mph.
So far, Izzo is happy with the direction and outcome of the public meetings.
“I just think it’s wonderful when state organizations come into a little town and try to change everything without getting feedback from the people, and then your local chamber of commerce takes a stand,” he said. “This is going to be a win, and we made a difference.”
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