we on Yes I'm calling this meeting to order Please join us as we say a prayer uh by Pastor Jim Harp Good morning Yeah good morning Let's pray Father I
want to open this invocation with reading back to you something from your word in Psalm 100 Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth Worship the Lord with gladness Come before him with joyful songs Know that the Lord is God It is he
who made us and we are his We are his people the sheep of his pasture Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise Give thanks to him and praise his name For the Lord is good and his love endures forever His
faithfulness continues through all generations Father thank you for these words this morning Thank you for the privilege and opportunity to come before you in prayer this morning to begin this time this meeting Lord with looking to you and asking for your guidance your
direction your wisdom Lord we give you praise and thanks Lord for all your goodness to us Thank you for this special weekend that we've just come through where we celebrate Lord your goodness and your grace and the resurrection of Christ Lord we do pray for this meeting that you would guide
and direct I pray for these folks that you've placed in leadership over us I ask you to give them wisdom discernment and direction And Lord I pray for protection over them Father that you would guard them in all their ways So thank you Lord Thank you for this day this beautiful day that you've given us
Thank you for this beautiful place in which we live and that we can honor you In Jesus name I pray Amen Amen Please join us for the pledge of allegiance Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Miss Ortiz would you like to call roll call please commissioner Eileen Vargas
Commissioner Sarah Herd here Commissioner Stacy Heatherington here Commissioner Jay Blake Caps here Commissioner Edward Campini here Commissioner Christopher Collins
here Commissioner Ka Mayfield here Mayor Carmine Depalo here Commissioner Shan Reed here Vargas And for the record uh Commissioner Vargas joined us Um is
there a So we have a full quota of We do have a quorum Yes Yeah Um is there a motion to approve the agenda uh so move Second There's a motion and a second All those in favor i opposed That motion passes unanimously Is there a motion to
approve the minutes of the MO board meeting of February 24th 2025 so moved Second There's a motion and a second All those in favor i opposed That motion passes unanimously Would anyone from the public like to address us this morning
seeing none we'll move on to the agenda 8A is a Florida Turnpike Enterprise presentation Yes Um back in December the board requested that um the turnpike staff present to you all the projects that are going to um on on the turnpike
in Martin County So this morning we have James Brown here to give that presentation Good morning everyone Good morning James Brown I am the MO leazison of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise Uh wanted to come back speak to the board just to give you an overview of what projects we have
planned here in Martin County Uh we'll get into some of the projects that are funded for design Uh and we'll go ahead and get started I'm going to be speaking of those projects So we're going to get into our mainline widening segments We have four segments here in Martin County
uh that we're going to be looking to add capacity to the enterprise It's going to be uh for obviously evacuation route safety improvements interchange improvements Uh we'll get into Martin Highway interchange improvement project uh our direct connection interchange the
crossover and then I'll speak to some stakeholder coordination So this is a map of Martin County just wanted to kind of give you an overview of this is what we have going on If you start from the south at Palm Beach County line you have our
first widening segment uh which is to the direct to connect interchange uh the uh 9751 that is the direct to connect interchange Uh that first segment there that is in a design funding which just kicked off Uh I can
speak to the direct connect interchange and we'll get into that uh that's in PD&E right now and we'll be having our public meeting for that in the fall Then you'll move on to the next segment which is from the direct connect up into Thomas Pman bridge Uh we have some
bridge work uh project and then a segment from the bridge up to Martin Highway You have the Martin Highway interchange project and then from Martin Highway up to the St Lucy County line Three of those four segments are funded for design The only segment right now
that is not funded for design in our current work program is the segment from the bridge up to Martin Highway Speaking to the widening segments again they are to improve the safety enhance enhancements of the
facility Uh I spoke to this when we did the uh work program presentation but Turnpike Enterprise is allocating over 10 billion dollars over the next five years systemwide to widen our our our main line There's parts of it that
haven't been touched since it was constructed in the 50s here in Martin County I spoke to the four segments Uh the plan is from Palm Beach County line up to Martin Highway we're going to be widening from four to six lanes And then from Martin Highway up to St Lucy
interchange it's going to be widened to eight lanes along that uh facility We are going to be looking at the improved uh safety enhancements striping of the the roadway LED lighting getting things prepared for the enhancements of
autonomous vehicles Uh sound barriers are going to be analyzed along those residential areas that are qualifying Uh those areas where we may not be able to do a a sound wall uh we'll look at visual buffering options And again I do
reiterate construction is not funded at this time Moving on to the Martin Highway interchange improvements This is currently in design It kicked off last summer Uh this will accommodate the future eight lane widening which will go from this interchange up to St Lucy Port
St Lucy Ber interchange Uh we're revising the southeast quadrant uh to reduce the w the rightaway impacts Uh there is no access to southwest Leighton Uh so that is not part of this Yes I wanted to reiterate that
And uh with regard to the design itself the northbound off you can kind of see where it splits Uh so you'll be able to direct traffic of once you end up at uh Martin Highway Those that want to go left can go left more easily There's going to kind of eliminate a lot of that
weaving there Uh you'll also notice and it may be hard to see but we're increasing the the turn lanes as part of this design So you'll have three left turn lanes onto Turnpike Uh again you'll see three left turn lanes onto the Martin
Highway and no further phases funded at this time other than the design direct connection interchange project We came last fall and spoke to the board with regard to that PD&E study Uh the alternatives are going to provide
the same direct connections Uh we're looking at pre uh presenting the preferred alternative this fall in a public hearing Uh it will include emergency vehicle access points which was discussed and uh no further phases
are funded at this time although it's constantly being reviewed for opportunities for us to add that into our work program when we can because there's a need there just mentioning the stakeholder engagement A lot of these projects are designed now This is when we're really
going to start meeting with communities Uh we'll have uh continued outreach Uh we'll meet with your local communities with Martin County these presentations to the MO Uh and as I've mentioned the public information meetings that we'll have and just wanted to provide a safety
movement the uh move over law Uh so basically you want to slow down when you see emergency of vehicles You want to get over lane if you can If you're not able to they want you to slow down to 20 miles an hour And with that I'll open it up to any questions Mr Campy Thank you
Just to your last point I know I've heard people discussing the move over law It's not just police or fire trucks It's it could be a tow truck It could be it could be Range Rover It could be a disabled vehicle It's the gamut of what is going on in that lane you want to get
over Yeah Right I think maybe there's a little more uh public education involved because I've argued with people that said you only have to pull over you only have to move over for police or fire and I'm like no I mean first I get that it's makes perfect sense to move over for
everybody that's potentially in the lane but people also do 120 m hour right and that's the aspect of it And that's why I included it is I appreciate it Can't get over a lane a lot of times Slow down Yeah So y Commissioner Heatherington
Yeah What is the criteria um you mentioned the soundwall particularly I know the turnpike to the north um section up to Becker that there were some neighborhoods in um Palm City that were requesting sound walls for many
years What is the criteria and what's your mechanism of studying and determining if those are going to be um installed the original PD&E when that was originally studied for that corridor from Jupiter up to Fort Pierce for the
widening that part of the uh the turnpike Uh at that time they had indicated that there were qualifying residential areas that may qualify for potential noise walls Um those were and I can just mention them It was Hammock Creek Highlands Reserve Coina Cove
Apartments uh Copper Leaf Homes Those were designated residential areas that were going to be further studied Um that initial PD&E indicated that those were most likely qualify But again we're in design now So this is where we're going to kind of look at everything again
reach out to local communities Um and then that's why I al also wanted to say if there's an area where we may not be able to do a noise wall because it may not qualify we're looking at visual buffering options you know landscaping some type of the design on how the the the land slopes or what have you Um to
be able to at least aesthetically block any type of view but those they'll have additional opportunities to participate then Yes you will Perfect Thank you Commissioner Mayfield Uh yes At the Palm Beach County line it's six lanes Um and so when you go up to eight lanes was
that determined the best place to do it as opposed to making all Martin County eight lanes or how did that was based on the need traffic need yeah So we've we've looked at that corridor from Martin Highway up to St Lucy So a lot of St Lucy counties going to Martin County
Yeah Yeah I mean does it make sense to go eight all the way just because Palm Beach County is full of people so it's uh St Lucy County or obviously you guys are the experts That was just my I was wondering originally we had looked at doing a widening um but again it was it was reassessed on the need Yeah So
you'll see that um even in like Palm Beach you know you'll see that it's widening to eight lanes Um and that right now is the construction focus If you're traveling south over the next five years you'll see those segments start kicking off their construction Um we're hoping to then get Martin County
funded at some point into the work program but that you'll see Palm Beach is where a lot's going to be happening Um but yeah to that point it's just on the need Yeah Commissioner Caps my question has to do with the direct
connection and my neck of the woods down in the Hobound area And as I remember there was an option that was presented that is to the north of Bridge Road and one to the south of Bridge Road and wonder if you could give a little more
explanation on it and then and tell me a little more about the timetable as well on on this that PD&E like I said it's looking to uh that study will be ending early next year Uh we're going to have our public hearing scheduled in the fall
and at that time the preferred alternative would be presented which at this time is looking to what you described the the north of and the south of Um I believe we presented to you kind of like a crossover which it was all kind of like in one in one area Um
there's a cost aspect to it Um there was a lot less that would have needed to be done to kind of rechange some of the configurations on I95 if we pursued that crossover um from a safety standpoint from people entering and leaving and the weaving Um it that just was the
preferred alternative So we're going to be presenting that into the fall We'll come to the MO and and and obviously be presenting that to you as a body Um but that that's the timeline on that There is no further funding at this time but like I said we're hoping to be able to
at least in the foreseeable future have design funded with regard to that possibly in a future work program One other question Are there these uh flyovers or direct connections in other parts of the state yes Yeah Are they
pretty popular are there a number of them or just a few of them or looking I mean the design in in itself you we we have a flyover down in in Miami Dade Um between I75 and our facility down there
Um I can speak to you know FDOT District 4 and what they're doing with I95 and the express lane flyovers Yeah it's just uh a lot of it is just for from a safety standpoint too of moving people over Thank you You're welcome And all of
these projects are extremely important Um but are any of them prioritized over the others good question uh we annually do a traffic analysis or traffic trends Um and that's as a
facility that's as an enterprise how we determine kind of where we're going to allocate dollars after maintenance and after road upkeep etc Uh so we get into which interchanges systemwide need the most improvement at this point
Um right now in Martin County you have your Martin Highway interchange and you have the section from Martin Highway up to Becker which is the farthest along in the design process Now the need was the strongest there at this time So from my
my armchair exposure is that where the traffic is the absolute worst is I 95 at Indian Town Road um every after every time you go through there you're stuck in a parking lot for
half an hour Um so yeah and that that falls into part of the widening segment which will be from um PGA up to Indian Town uh which would include improvements there with regard to that interchange But again our hope is to be able to pull
into the work program the next phase for the direct connection that's mediate a lot of that What kind of improvements can be made at that interchange that will improve it with regard to turning capacity uh increasing the amount you know have a dual lane that goes you know
to the right etc There's there's opportunities for us to be able to at least increase um the capacity that can get through the interchange safely Any further questions comments thank you very much Thank you Thank you Appreciate it Y
Commissioners do we want to regularly have presentations from the Turnpike Enterprise these are these are very informative Yeah I think so You know these are long range projects I'd like to keep a breast of what's happening with them so that we don't get bogged
down or forgotten Okay Um Well it says they're going to come back in the fall Would you would you like to I mean is that Fall's good right is that fall okay Yeah Mhm Yeah I just hear that the projects are really going to be happening in Palm Beach County and I want them to be happening
here too Okay Uh we'll take up 8B which is uh FDOT US1 shared use non-motorized uh Sunrail project from Hopetown Wildlife Refuge to Southeast Bridge Road Okay Um
yes Um and just to give you kind of a little um background on this we kind of talked a little bit about this at the advisory committee meeting where um the Suntrail is Florida's portion of the bigger federal initiative which is called the East Coast Greenway and that
is a shared use path that's 10 to 12 feet wide that runs from Maine all the way down to Key West Um that federal initiative has been around quite a few years probably at least 20 years or so And um but uh back in probably about
2017 or uh or thereabouts FDOT developed a program called the shared use non-motorized or sun is the acronym sunrail program which was a federal which was a state program to fund regional trails And for Martin County
the east coast greenway is the the um trail that's eligible for those funds And the segment that is going to be presented to you today um this is Dearis Williams with FDOT District 4 is the segment between the Hope Sound National Wildlife Refuge north to Bridge Road So
with that I'll turn it over to you Dear Yes I'm Dearis Williams So initially there was a feasibility study that considered um the the connectivity um of the corridor along US1 whether to have it at east um alignment or west
alignment Um and there was an a previously approved no of a east alignment but we did um a revision on the north end to connect to uh another central project that was um I guess
recently added uh uh north of Southeast Bridge Road So I'm going to introduce uh Cindy Kendrick and she's the the consultant PM for the Santro project Cindy morning Good morning As Deamara said uh we're here to present
on the uh Suntrail project from the Hope Sound Wildlife National Refuge to Southeast Bridge Road Oops Let's see You use the mouse wheel Okay Oops Okay So our project limits
again are from the Hopes National Wildlife Refuge And at that it's going to provide a connection to a trail that's being constructed uh within the park That's the FD uh flap trail And our
ending limits are at uh Southeast Bridge Road And the project length is about 2.2 miles and it's going to cross over the FEC railroad Oops wrong way Uh so as Demaris mentioned there was a previous
feasibility study that was done That study recommended that the trail be along the east side of US1 and at that time it included outreach to the agencies and stakeholders and then uh we were awarded the design for the
project Um there's also a three-R project which is a milling and resurfacing project which is going to mill and resurface US1 and provide some safety improvements at the intersection of Bridge Road including doing some curb ramps that's not part of our project but
it's going on in the area So I just wanted to bring that to your attention And that three R project also includes a sidewalk extension uh from Southeast High Avenue to the Ocean to Lake Trail Head So that provides additional
connectivity for trail users uh as [Music] well So why are we here um there's a new trail that's being constructed north of Bridge Road and that's going to be on the west side of
US1 So um knowing that the department asked us to look at whether it still made sense to in uh have the trail on the east side of US1 or maybe it made sense to have it on the west side of US1 So they asked us to do a highlevel
evaluation of the east versus west So we did that and some of the things that we looked at were providing connections to other parks and trails uh connections to neighborhoods and to increase uh activity for the trail users
and then other potential impacts uh which included drainage and utilities and lighting and other things like that Having a little trouble with the mouse here Um and then as we got into it we thought well maybe it doesn't make sense
to do an all east or all west So we kind of looked at it from a hybrid standpoint and we broke the project up into three separate segments Seg and these segments were uh kind of logically uh selected based on potential crossing locations So
segment one is from the Hope Sound Wildlife Refuge to Dixie Highway Segment two is from Dixie to Olympus and then segment three was from Olympus to Bridge Road Um so when we did the evaluation
for the east versus west uh segment one the east alignment was preferred and this was the same as the previous feasibility study So there's no changes to that particular segment Um and as I mentioned before uh
the 3R project will provide a sidewalk connection uh to the ocean to lakes trail head uh on the west side of US1 So that's separate from our project but it's important to
note Segment two um that's from Dixie to Olympus So uh this section keeping it on the east side provided some opportunities because there's no sidewalk on the east side to connect some neighborhoods and some other park
users uh on the east side of US1 So we thought the east side made sense in this segment too We know that there's some challenge areas on keeping the trail on the east side particularly near Saturn Avenue and the adjacent Hob Sound Scrub
Preserve But there's also an opportunity to maybe pro keep the trail at a lower elevation and maybe there could be um a connection provided at that location So for segment two we recommended to keep the trail on
the east side which is consistent with the previous feasibility study Uh we also looked at potentially crossing them at Olympus if the trail was going to be constructed on the west side going north to Bridge Road So there's an opportunity
to do that as well And so segment three um we really wanted we really thought there was some advantages to put the trail on the west side There's some challenges if the trail were on the east side with some drainage and utilities that are in the
way And having it on the west side provided a more logical location for the trail users to crossbridge road They would only have to navigate a T intersection at Olympus versus a full intersection at Southeast Bridge Road So
this was a change from the previous feasibility study for the short segment from Olympus to Southeast Bridge Road Uh we're going to be crossing the Harry and the Natives uh parcel That's a lease agreement but we're going to do what we
can to minimize impacts to that And um so just to recap segment one and two we recommend keeping the trail on the east side which is consistent with what the previous feasibility study had And uh segment three which is from
Olympus to Bridge Road that's where the change is We recommend to shift that over to the west side and provide a new crossing location uh for the trail users at Olympus at the signal So our next step would be to obtain survey and
prepare the design plans and we would continue with our outreach and stakeholder coordination for the project That's it At at first blush this isn't a 40 mile trail It's a
2.2 mile trail And how many times are you crossing US1 one time and traffic It's four lanes of traffic and they're going 65 miles an hour Okay
Yeah Just just to give you a background for this one It's just one for this segment It's just one time Um but the segment to the south that is funded with um federal lands access program uh grant
funds and that um has to access the national hopes wildlife refuge because that was a grant that uh was a partnership between the hopeound wildlife refuge JD state park the county and the no and um and part of that um um
you have to access the national land to be able ble to get those those grants funds were awarded um you know probably about I don't know 15 14 years ago or so Um and then the as the consultant mentioned the this segment was originally just going to stay on the
east side of the roadway and then the seg of US1 and then the segment north of there was originally going to go down Gomez and then come um west on Bridge Road to meet that segment But when we did a feasibility study the preferred
alignment for that northern segment was over on the west side So that's why it needs to cross over back to the west And there the FDOT was looking at the safety aspect of this Where is it would it be safer for cyclists to cross at the
intersection of Bridge Road and US1 or perhaps Olympus Street and US1 would be a closer would be a safer area for those cyclists and pedestrians to cross before they get to that busier intersection that has more vehicles and more conflict areas
So north of of Bridge Road where does the trail go on the west side of US1 west side of US1 up to Osprey and then it crosses over so it can connect to Cab Branch State Park So when this is all through someone can park their car at C Branch and ride
their bike on a trail all the way to JD State Park Commissioner Caps Yes Um instead of thinking of it in terms of segments I'm just trying to imagine myself on a bicycle and I'm coming out
of Tquesta and right now there's a a nice big wide sidewalk that comes up the west side of US1 up to the entrance of JD Park that's already built So you're on the
west side and you're coming north and then there's going to be a little piece of of sidewalk between the entrance to JD up to the Hopestown National Wildlife Refuge that will continue on the west side Is that right
it'll go through the park through the state park Okay So where where the sidewalk terminates now it will turn west into the park into the park on the main road that goes into the park which I think is called Park Drive right and it'll go down to the railroad
tracks in the park and then turn north and run up what is uh has been called the old Dixie Highway the old uh dilapidated road that that runs along the railroad tracks in the park This
will be a paved turned into a foot right and so you'll be riding your bike up through the park but along the railroad tracks which I I walk there often and then it pops back
out at uh like the overpass area right there where Dixie where the tower no further south where the tower used to be I think Oh the Luran Tower Yes Right Right Okay So it pops out there and then it crosses the highway right all right
So to Commissioner Kurds Herd's point um that's your first time you go across the highway and you you jump over to the east at Hopetown National Wildlife Refuge and then you go ways up to you're
going to go all the way up to Olympus Street along the east side and then you're going to jump back over to the west at Olympus where the fire station is Okay So they're actually two If you're coming up from Toquesta on a bicycle
you'll be you'll be going across the highway two times right one at at Hobound National Wildlife Refuge and one at Olympus You do two crossings And Okay Just wanted to get it straight Uh one other thing about the
uh ability to go across the railroad tracks Will that be on existing pavement on the overpass or will you have to build some kind of structure is it wide enough to have a shared use uh path on the existing overpass
uh the existing bridge is not wide enough right now as part of our uh scope of work We're doing a bridge development report to evaluate whether we widen the bridge to accommodate the trail users or whether we do a standalone bridge crossing So we're evaluating those two
and we should have that done in a couple weeks Okay So some modification would be needed to the overpass itself Yeah So the existing shoulders are not wide Yeah I was thinking I didn't I didn't think it was wide enough considering the fact that this path needs to be rather wide
Is it 8 ft wide it's it's 12typical At bridges you can narrow it down to eight Okay Okay Thank you We prefer 12 Commissioner Heatherington So the northern section of this uh Beth is the um section that where we did the
feasibility between Gomez Dixie and US1 and what is the start and termination does it end in at Sea Branch what's the most northern section of that trail where does it terminate there's a a segment that goes from C branch down to
along Gomez down to Osprey and then it goes west along Osprey to US1 and to the west side and then on the west side of US1 it goes down to Bridge Road Okay we're going down Gomez and then we're not going down Well just just from
from the park down to Osprey There's a very small section along Gomez but then it will go west on at Osprey Street What what you might be confusing you know in Hope Sound Gomez uh has two different
stretches You know there's the the Gomez up to Crossre and then you go west on Crossre and then when you turn right before you get to the railroad tracks and go to Laly Bay that's also called Gomez right there So what section of the
the northern part of this trail goes on US1 and is it on the east side it's on on the west side Bridge Road up to Osprey is on the west side Bridge to Osprey And then cuts over east to Gomez Yeah
North to Sea Branch A lot of pedestrian interaction I always preferred um Dixie I know there were challenges with the rightway but there was less car and pedestrian interaction but it I'm concerned about
all of the back and forth between crossing US1 actually So I wanted to supplement what Cindy presented Um one of the reasons we we wanted them to look at east versus west one from a constructibility point of
view because the fe the previous feasibility mainly focused on connectivity but also that that um connection to southeast bridge road Um the office of modal development was concerned that having um an east alignment and then crossing US1 and then
crossing southeast bridge road two crossing in one intersection would be too much So they so there was an interest in maybe breaking it up Um first should the alignment be on the west side so it's only southeast brbridge crossing but you know as as Cindy presented there's a a preference
for the east um but crossing them at um Olympus then it's just one crossing there's already already an existing signal there and then then a separate crossing a southeast bridge road um so separating the two because potentially
you could just have one all in Southeast Bridge Road it would be you know safer for for the the riders or or the the users of of that trail So anyways we're we're here to present um you know why
that that the new um change from east to west would provide better connection to what continues on the west um side north to southeast bridge road and also separating um the potential connection
of US1 by simplifying it But yeah I I I see what you guys are concerned you know there's there's kind of multiple um when you look at the big picture bird's eye view of of the three segments that it seems like it it's a total of three
segments that there's multiple um crossings which and speaking of that kind of thing um I want to share with you um some conversation that the advisory committee had and could you scroll back down to the closeup of where it crosses um Olympus speaking of having
more than one um crossing one uh conflict area Um there um the advisory committee talked about having that crossing It's north of Olympus and that's a fire station over on the southeast side and they thought it might
be better to have the crossing before you got to Olympus and so that way there'd be one less um um one less conflict area You you would you would cross over Thank you you would cross over south of Olympus over to the west side and then there's not a street on
that side and then you would continue west up to Bridge Road Um whereas now you know the fire trucks are going to be coming out of that fire station Now um um this drawing has it you know crossing Olympus Street and then crossing US1 So that was just a conversation that the um
and recommendation that the advisory committee had with you know was to have that crossing south of Olympus Um so I just wanted to share that with you There's a light at Olympus and there aren't lights either north or south of there When I say it would still be at
that same intersection it would just be the the crossing would just be before you get to the road instead of right after right before you get to the right So it would still be at that same intersection but just um the the crosswalk or crossing area
would be just south of there I mean it's it's up I mean that's just I wanted to share with you that was the conversation that the advisory committee had Commissioner Caps Yes Um I know this is a a thing of the past but um uh Commissioner Heatherington referred to
Dixie Highway and I thought maybe you could comment just a little bit more about the very complicated problems that you would have bringing it down Dixie I think would be preferred But the rightway issue from what I understand along Dixie Highway is
extremely small all the way up through South Florida I mean like when that road was built many years ago it just has like you know 5t on each side of the road right or something like that It's not wide enough You'd have to get you'd
have to buy parcels all the way up and down the road uh to put a big sidewalk in right the the state office of greenways and trails has um does not have the alignment along Dixie Highway just for that reason because of the rightway issues along there Right And plus in
some areas of Dixie Highway there's the um issue with the FEC being right adjacent to it and um that is problematic Thank you Moving along Any further comments questions any action we should read Yes This is
for Beth When you say rightaway issues is that like property owners just not wanting to Okay Um so I I didn't So I This is a discussion item but it is um up to you all if you want to direct the um FDOT and the consultant on to look at the
advisory committee's re recommendation If you don't um that's fine but if you just um concur with the advisory committee that that at least should be considered it's up to you all Commissioner Campy I would make a recommendation I don't think it does it need to be a motion No
it doesn't have to be a motion I would agree with the recommendation that bringing the uh cross south of the Olympus Street intersection so as to have less interaction with potential fire trucks uh on the Olympus Street entrance and
exit to the fire station there Makes sense And then in regards to switching back and forth over US1 of course keeping it on one side or the other would make sense but JD Park is on the west side and the refuge is on the east side and people will want to go to both
So you have no choice but to cross the road And I think the work that you've done obviously studying it for hours and hours and hours should take precedent over the those of us that are up here looking at it briefly Thank you Except that it looks to me that if
you're on the trail southbound and you move the crosswalk south there's more interaction with southbound fire trucks How so well because you're going to they're going to you'll be on the west If you're coming south you're on the
west You're on the red portion at that point I'm just talking about fire trucks turning west No I get that Turning south right they're just talking that you wouldn't cross their entrance right there You'd be over here versus here you're crossing it north to south on
right in their driveway It's it's almost six of one half dozen of another But I lean towards that strategy Imagine you'll have blaring sounds and everybody be stopping when if if they're making a
turn Yeah pretty much People would if it's a code three people stop Any further questions or comments thank you We'll move on to 8C which is federal
performance measures two and three updated 2025 performance targets Um yes So um this item is um comes to us at at the request of FDOT Um just to give you a little background um a number of years ago uh the federal government
or the congress asked um US DOT and other departments to have what they call performance-based targeting performance-based planning and um US DOT asked the states and the NPOS's to approve targets um because they wanted to make sure the federal money that was
being spent on local and state projects were um was being spent wisely that that was it was doing what um they had hoped the money would do with that with that improvement If you can scroll down to Yeah there you go Um so um and you're very familiar with the category um in
the performance measures of safety You all approve targets for that every year as as what we're required to do And that's um we adopt the state's vision zero safety and that um um projects that should be um should be looked at and
considered with zero accidents um zero fatalities and zero serious injuries Um in this case um FDOT is asking us to approve targets or update targets on the categories of bridge and pavement as well as system performance those two
categories The NO is required to update every four years FDOT is required to update every two years Um and so in this particular case um FDOT is looking at kind of the midpoint of when they looked at their data and they're realizing that the targets that were approved two years
ago when the NPO approved them um was there's the goals are actually better than what we actually approved So they're asking the NO to update those targets If you look at the middle section those are the middle section down here the Okay let me back up The
section on the left those are the targets that are set by federal highway or those are performance measures set by federal highway Two years ago the state and the NO approved the targets in the middle column um on the second item down And just to be clear this is regarding
the national highway system not all the local roads just the national highway system And when this first came about the NPOS's in the state had a lot of meetings and there's 27 NPOs in Florida and we agreed that the state had much more resources for data collection and
data analysis than each of the NPOs did So almost all the NPOS that like 25 of 27 actually adopt the state's targets There's like a couple of big ones with the safety targets that they don't adopt division zero I think like Miami date
doesn't adopt division zero but some of the other ones uh but all the other ones adopt division zero and same with the bridge and pavement and system performance measures um the all the almost all the NPOS's adopt with the state adopts so anyway the middle column
looks at the um the performance targets that were adopted two years ago the second line down percent of national highway system bridges by deck area in poor condition the target that was adopted was um less than or equal to 10%
Uh since that time I mean it's actually a lot better than that It's like 1% in the state of Florida So FDOT wanted to give that message to the federal government that we're doing actually better than Florida thought they were going to So they're asking the NO to
update that target to less than or equal to 5% Um and then there are a couple of items a couple of um performance measures under system performance They're they're actually act asking us to update The first one is percent of person miles on the interstate that are
reliable The target that was um adopted was greater than or equal to 70% It's actually better than that So they're actually asking us to adopt 75% instead And then the second measure percent of person miles on the non-instate national
highway system that are reliable the um target that was adopted was greater than or equal to 50% and they're asking us to adopt greater than or equal to 60% because like I said the state wants to give the um federal government more accurate um indication that we are doing
better than we thought we were going to do So we do have representatives from FDOT here If you all have any questions or if I can I'll be happy to answer any question but staff is recommending that we adopt um those updated targets that um FDOT is requesting Commissioner Campy
thank you Seeing that these are very technical ups and downs and uh I'm happy to see that the process is heading in the right direction I would make a motion to accept the changes that you have presented Second There's a motion and a second Second
Any questions comments there's a motion in a second All those in favor i opposed That motion passes unanimously Thank you With our thanks Keep it up Thanks Uh we'll take up 8D which is Florida Department
of Transportation statements and assurances Um yes this item comes before you all every year The NO has a state certification audit every year um as part of their audit package or review certification review package they
actually ask the MO to um approve or um authorize the chair to sign forms that say that we're following federal guidelines in our transportation and um planning process Um guidelines such as you know we don't use federal money for lobbying We don't um we follow um title
six rules of non-discrimination Um and so this this like I said this comes before you all every year We did get um a draft audit um our draft audit last week and we didn't have any corrective actions So we're always happy about that but um th
this these forms will that are included in your agenda packet we are going to do need to be included in the state certification package We do have a very good partnership with District 4 They're very resourceful and very helpful to us Um um Tony Nora is here I don't know if
he wants to say a few words um about the audit but um or the certification review but you're welcome to um Good morning Good morning My name is Tony Norat I'm one of the planning managers or planning supervisors for uh district 4 Uh and I
just wanted to recognize uh the Martin Mo board um and the MO themselves and their team um for doing a fantastic job uh they've been identified amongst their peers as uh leaders in this category Um
once again uh I've only been here for about three years but every year uh since I've been here they've scored low risk um which is not common to see uh throughout the district we've had uh other NPOs that have scored uh elevated risk and stuff So um I did want to
recognize the great job that they're doing uh you guys as well Um the partnership that you guys have uh with FDOT is is imperative uh to the job that we do So I wanted to thank you guys as well Uh Beth Ricky thank you Appreciate
the help Thank you Any questions or comments commissioner Heatherington I'll move to um execute the state certification documents for the chair to execute them Second There's a motion and a second Is there any public comment any
commissioner comments there's a motion in a second All those in favor i opposed That motion passes unanimously And we will move on to AE which is a uh County Route 713 Southwest High Meadow Avenue project development
and environment study update Yes Um this is for the High Meadow Avenue widening project and it's their um PD they are currently in FDOT is currently in the PD public involvement part of that project and Deiris once again Williams is uh the
project manager for that project as well and she is here with a consultant um to talk a little bit about that project Yeah I have quite a few Martin County projects um they like to hear So yeah we we're approaching where we're
we'll be doing a public hearing in May midmay So we're here to present what we're more or less presenting to to the public hearing Um Paul Paul Carbay with Metric Engineering who's who's um presenting on the study
Thank you Demerce and good morning everyone Good morning Let me So the discussion um today will summarize the public involvement activities and the preferred alternative that is moving forward to the public hearing Uh the just a brief uh
introduction again Um the project study area is from County Road 73 Southwest uh high meadow avenue Uh it is from I95 uh to County Road 714 Southwest Morning Highway Uh the the project includes the following intersections So starting from
the south we have uh Swallowail Way uh Southwest Bainberry Drive Southwest Golden Bear Way Southwest Horseshoe Trail and then Conor Road 714 Southwest Martin Highway Can I stop you for a second have you go back a slide i don't mean to be a
nitpicker but before you go and present this to the public it's Hammock Creek not Hammond So before you spend a ton of money on making gigantic boards and stuff Yeah I think the neighbors would be disappointed if you didn't have their
community listed accurately Yep Thank you Sorry about that That's okay Um Okay So um so a PD study was recently completed uh completed near the project corridor along the turnpike resulting in widening and improvements to the interchange at Southwest Martin Highway
uh southwest Martin Highway Uh west of the turnpike interchange is state road 714 and east of the interchange is county road 714 Uh the interchange at turnpike and south and state road 714 is currently in design um that started in
2024 And in addition to state road 714 was widened just west of the turnpike interchange and is substantially completed Uh there are various port properties on the northern segment of County Road 713 Southwest High Meadow Uh these properties have a high potential for
future development and some are being reviewed for approval while others are under construction Uh the purpose of this project is to improve capacity for local and regional travel freight movement and emergency evacuation enhance economic development in Martin County Uh the need
for the project includes a capacity transportation demand and social demand economic development The project objective is to improve roadway capacity by addressing existing and projected traffic demands improve safety throughout the corridor and enhance pedestrian and bicyclist
accommodations The study team has conducted six local government and agency coordination meetings that provided updates on the project development A virtual public kickoff meeting was held on February 13 2024 with 38 attendees and in person uh
on February 15 2024 with 28 attendees The virtual alternatives public workshop was held on June 25th 2024 with 36 attendees and an in-person meeting was held on June 27 2024 with 38 attendees For both meetings there has been various
comments received regarding the traffic noise construction impacts and safety concerns In addition we received support from the Morgan County MPO policy board uh on the on June 17th regarding the 45 miles per hour typical section as well as the signalized intersection
alternative for county road 714 Uh and then on September 10 2024 the board of county commissioners for Morning uh County passed a resolution in support of lowering the speed between I95 and Southwest Golden Bear Way to 45 miles per hour
Uh the project corridor has been divided into two segments So segment one is from the begin project to southwest golden bear way Uh the seg this segment is more residential with entrances to the residential communities and it borders the turnpike on the west The segment two
is from Golden Bear Way to Southwest Morton Highway Uh this segment has more commercial properties and areas that has a potential future development The P& study has developed different alternatives to address the project needs uh to improve capacity transportation demand and social demand
economic development Uh this project has also been evaluated various improvements such as raised median sidewalks various speed limits medium barrier walls and share use paths and and and as well as intersection improvements Uh throughout the study the co the community and local
agencies have been invited to review and comment on the project concepts to help create the best solution for the community Uh for segment one the preferred alternative is typical section A uh which is a a fourlane divided facility with 11T travel lanes a 22 foot
raised median curbon gutter and a 10 foot wide share use path on the east side Uh the proposed typical section will have a posted speed of 45 mph which again will lower the the existing posted speed of 55 miles per hour And then segment two similar to
segment one um with all the same features the fourlane the share use path on the east but then with an addition of a sidewalk on the west side a 6ft sidewalk An intersection concept evaluation was performed for the county road 713 and county road 714
intersection The preferred alternative is uh the intersection alternative 1 which is the traffic signal intersection Uh so in addition to the winding of county road 713 delta high meadow Uh there are some additional improvements which include an additional eastbound and westbound through lane through the
intersection of southwest Martin highway and an additional left turn uh lanes will be provided for all movements at the intersection At this time it has been determined that a pond site will be required only for the northern project limit or basin 3 Uh initially there were six pond sites that
were being evaluated for this basin but has been narrowed down to three ponds Uh the preferred pond site will be finalized during the design phase of this project A noise uh study report was prepared for this project to evaluate if noise barriers are feasible for abatement for
the impacted noise sensitive sites along the corridor The results of the uh report indicate that a noise barrier is feasible and the reasonable method to abate traffic within a noise uh um from Southwest Way to Southwest Baneberry Drive The noise barrier will
be re-evaluated during the design phase of this project and if a noise wall a noise barrier along Florida's turnpike is constructed for this segment the borders this corridor an additional noise bearer wall would not be warranted uh coordination will with floor turn bike is ongoing and will continue
throughout the design phase of this project The no build and prefer alternative were evaluated and a summary of the potential benefits and impacts are summarized on this slide Uh the no build alternative assumes that no improvements would be made and no direct impacts are anticipated However the no build option
does not comply with the purpose and need of this quarter The build alternative is anticipated to improve safety capacity and freight movement and emergency evacuation to enhance economic development Um although rightaway acquisition is required and no
significant impacts are anticipated to the social cultural natural and physical environments with the build alternative The tip has the design phase funded with approximately 1 2 $1.2 million Uh the ride ofway phase is funded with approximately $1.5 million
and the construction phase is currently not funded within the 5-year work program Uh we hope you will join us for um the public hearing which is set for May 14th and 15th Um public notifications uh have started to be mailed out um last
Thursday I believe Um and they'll be mailed out this week for the property owners that are affected Um and then if you know you could reach out to Maris Williams or visit the project website for more information And the Florida Department of Transportation would like to remind
motorists that drive time is u time Turn on do not disturb before you leave And for more information on the safety campaign and others please visit fdot.gov That's all I got Thank you Thank you Let's see Yeah Iran Yeah I just wanted
to um just mention something that the once again that the advisory committees we had a joint advisory committee on April 7th last week So um um couple weeks ago So I just wanted to mention some of the conversation they had about this project They they like this project Um they concurred with it Um back on um
slide 13 they did um ask um FDOT if it were feasible if they could consider maybe the ponds Um I know there you know they understood that they were being used for drainage but um if feasible if they could if they could be considered
um to provide some kind of habitat value to wildlife and plants So I just wanted to share that with you and if you all concur you can um let them know if if I mean just I just wanted to share that information with you
commissioner caps So the construction phase is not funded yet within the five-year program right so realistically we're looking at this being like eight or 10 years away right approximately even more I'll have to check it but even more 15 Okay So
the as far as the need for this this is this is uh based a lot on future development that might be coming along New field all the stuff in Palm City it's not necessarily based upon immediate need Correct Yeah When we do
our studies we look at 2050 years to analyze the roadway capacity and and the operational movements for the intersection Mhm And projects that are ongoing Right My sense is that road is not like really uh incredibly busy at the moment I'd
like to hear from the district commissioner on that Commissioner Campy He he'll probably tell me otherwise Commissioner Mayfield Um yes I just wanted to say that I uh concur with the joint advisory committee if um about putting in the wildlife with the pond
areas the thing you just mentioned That was it Mr Campy two points one obviously if we're building lakes or ponds and they have the ability to enhance any type of wildlife habitat that should be our rule
for every pond and lake that anyone does Why wouldn't you versus just making it barren uh and we've done very well with that here in Martin Uh secondly High Meadows is um one of the main ways
uh of getting into northern Martin County Stewart South uh SS Point Hutchinson Island there it's the last exit You have 95 that's way out on Martin Highway but
that's six miles further west So a lot of people if you're trying to if you're riding on 95 to get to Jensen for per se or or Hutchinson Island or SS Point you get off at that exit and then you ride High Meadow So it happens to be a very
busy road And remember and and those of you that are new to this it took me quite a while to realize we're speaking about these projects like they're going to get started in the next six months We you have to in your mind especially on the no start realizing that you're
focusing on things that are going to happen 10 to 15 years from now So you can't use your collective thought process of hey I I don't know if it's really it takes like I guess the people that are sitting in the audience that
that work for these organizations or are consultants for FDOT or the turnpike you're they they have no they think in decades where we think in months and so yes this is important we've been working on it for a while and
um the development of projects We're going to get to a point you know unless you're heading west you know and again I'm talking 10 to 15 years from now majority of us Commissioner Herd will still be here but the rest of us will probably have uh moved past and do
something else Um that being said I think it is an important project and I appreciate that that they've been added We've been talking about it Miss Belran for how long five six seven years already Been a priority Yeah It's just one of these things that you have to just understand
that you're planning we are planning well into the future They're going to deal with um property owners that won't even be part of this by the time it actually happens And that that uh segment two closer to
Martin Highway and and High Meadows there is in is in movement right now It doesn't really show it here where it says for sale in Palm Pike You see the Palm Pike crossing that's where the Yeah
right there There's some activity happening Oh High Meadow Medical Office Yeah See that's that that doesn't exist yet You flashed forward into the future I didn't even know it was going to be called High Medical High Meadows Medical
Offices Is there an application there i don't know if it's an application but there's something going on over there To me it looks like a sliver but there's obviously enough to put something there So the road is is changing This will be an important facet
for that Um that's why the Turnpike interchange conversation earlier And this for northern Martin County like I mentioned this is how you get off these major roads into Martin County especially with the turnpike Considering
what a lot of people do here is just like they do on Indian Town Road People travel north excuse me south on the turnpike and then they get off here and then they travel for a short distance on Martin Highway and then they make the
right to get onto free 95 That's what's interesting about the the transition or the crossover at bridge in the future because that will eliminate a lot of people that are getting off and trucks get off here That's why there's a
small section of Sound Wall between High Meadow and Martin Downs Boulevard on the north side of Martin Highway uh between High Meadow and the Turnpike if you will um because there's a tremendous amount of trucks that get off the turnpike and
get on 95 there So that little segment of High Meadow is important As well as the fact the last thing I'll say is a lot of people that are coming from um Becker and all of the crazy development that's going on in Port St
Lucy They ride on Murphy down the northern portion that's not shown in this project down the northern portion of High Meadow cross over Martin Highway and go to 95 that way as well So there's a lot of vehicular traffic that comes
out of Port St Lucy through Palm City there So I'm appreciative that you're doing it I just wish it was going to be done sooner Is there a hotel project in Palm Pike Crossing no Commissioner Heatherington I concur with the um habitat for the
ponds but those three ponds you have identified that that's private property You're So you're in the um acquisition stage Have you acquired that property so right now we we just uh finished our pond sighting process to kind of obtain the parcels that we are
recommending to move forward with Um we've been working a lot with the county because of the the and the South Florida Water Management District because there was some permits done in the '9s and there was some like how it was written It was slightly different Um so we've
been coordinating week files regarding those first basin So like this is all changing and and evolving Um so right now at this phase we are per uh submitting um for the title searches for these uh parcels just to see the the
next phase um moving forward to help us select the pond So that may change as as you go through the acquisition stage and then secondly the one segment is 55 miles an hour still and then from Hammock Creek to 95 is 45 Correct What
was the um it's it's so it's from here This first segment was 55 miles per hour and then the segment two is 45 So it's still from Hammock Creek to 714 is 45 Yes And then the other stretch is 55 It
it all used to be 55 Yeah Yeah The reason it stayed 55 south of Hammock Creek is that there's nothing there There's no way to enter or exit It's just a straight shot to 95 People do 80 anyway so you can call it whatever you want But we've also had a tremendous
amount of fa not a tremendous sadly any even one We've had several fatalities along that stretch I think everybody was happy that they changed the segment two to 45 Probably should put some kind of transition and maybe there is something already there that says we're going from
45 to 55 or vice versa Yeah Okay Thank you Commissioner Caps wonder if you could comment about the effectiveness of noise barrier walls and I'm curious about how close can you get to someone's property line with one of
those as well Um I'm the where's the slide um so ideally the noise wall is the closer it is to the actual noise um where the traffic it benefits more the
residents um as well as the closer you are to the wall it basically just benefits the first row of houses after that the noise kind of dissipates and it just kind of you know spreads out um in terms of the closeness of the property I'm not exactly sure the specific
um distance but I know for example right now our walls require like 15 ft um for minimum maintenance and and like a buffer for maintenance issues um so and footings and all that for the wall So so we have that included in our analysis
for per alternative H I know that down through there there's a lot of nice pine trees and um and they seem to be pretty close to the road Do you know the impacts to the tree
lines down through there um it would it would impact primarily the utility lines along that that segment if this wall was to be warranted Um and again that's put into our analysis for the design um because once
that they're looking at that it gets um looked at with the impacts the cost um just to see if it's warranted later in the future Thank you Just out of curiosity do you know how many uh vehicles pass through the uh
Caner exit as opposed to the Palm City exit i do not not off the top of my head I couldn't obtain that for you though I'm just curious Any further questions just discussion I think that's it That's just for discussion Thank you very much Thank you
so much Thank you And our last item is 8F No it's not It's okay Okay Um this item is the State Road 710 project update Um we do have the project manager for um the widening
project here to give a PowerPoint presentation and we also have Ron Kariva the SIS coordinator here as well So I'll turn this over to you Good morning Good morning Thank you for having us Uh Ron Kariva with FDOT Um I'm working in this planning environmental management office
I'm also the strategic interotal system coordinator I've come before you guys a few times in the past couple years about 710 but uh primarily today we have the design teams here that have been working um on the widening projects and the county road 714 intersection relocation
project uh to give an an update So this is about as detailed as we've got so far Design team's been moving along Um so something we can actually show you I know I've just been pretty much talking every time I came here before So at least there's something for you guys to see right now But I'm going to hand it over to um the project manager uh for
the the FD project manager in the design office that's handling the project No problem Yeah Hello everyone My name's uh Rob Lopez Yeah Excuse me Sorry Hello everyone My name is Rob Lopez I'm the
DOT uh project manager for the State Road 710 widening project that's uh taking place And as uh Ron mentioned I'm I'm just here to kind of give you a little bit update on the status of each segment where it's at Um so next slide
please Um you know kind of just the agenda What we want to go over with you today is just kind of like high high level discussion just to let you know uh kind of uh the effort that's taking place and what we still need to do to try to make this uh this project happen So we're going to just kind of give you
a quick overview of the corridor a lot of the project goals some of the existing conditions and the challenges that those present and uh some of our proposed uh improvements to try to overcome those challenges some of the key stakeholders that we're going to
have to work with cooperate with to uh to make a lot of that happen and the overall schedule for the project Um and you can see you know we've kind of completed the the planning to identify the need of this project I think everyone has uh there's uh not
much controversy in terms of the need of the project I think most people agree that the widening needs to take place for this corridor Uh PD& has taken place already to fulfill the NEPA requirements of the alternative analysis and environmental impact So we are in the
design phase right now to uh try to uh develop the detailed design and the uh detailed right-of-way requirements to begin uh rightway acquisition which you can see is the next phase of the the project and hopefully that will quickly take us into
construction Next slide please And uh this is just a little overview of again the the need for the project the probably the biggest driver of uh this whole corridor has been safety Um you can see highlighted on the screen there
we have an overview of the crash uh a heat map as we call it of crashes that have taken place along the corridor from 2019 to 2023 We know there have been additional uh crashes and even some fatalities in 2024 that are not shown
here but it kind of uh highlights again the priority Most of the priority we're looking at is going from the the north coming to the south or from the west going to the east Um but in addition to safety you
can also see the current uh traffic volumes are also starting to exceed a threshold While it has not exceeded capacity it's starting to exceed what uh people consider is normal operating condition for a rural area Uh which uh
as you can see on the screen there a level of service C or or better is usually our target for a rural area such as state uh this segment of State Road 710 When you get into more urban areas closer to the city of Stewart uh that's
where we try to target a little bit higher level of uh traffic volume of level of service uh D and greater Do you have any idea what's driving the increases in truck traffic it's going from 8 to 18% STS uh the what's driving
it um I can't say for sure like uh Ron do you think this is it sorry Okay this is it's just more it's uh my name is Gatri Lante one of the consultant project managers It's more of
a range This is just showing along the corridor It's the track traffic varies from 8 to 18% So it's not more of a a an increase in the track traffic It's just a range that is showing I guess you know it's usually like the 18% Sorry uh you know 18% is obviously
where the volumes are a little bit lower basically overall cuz the truck traffic is probably more uniform throughout the corridor way he mentioned it but there's obviously closer to Indian town is probably where the the car volume increases slightly and that's probably
where you get that the lower percentage and the higher percentage is where the passenger car volume kind of goes down Uh next slide please [Applause] Um and this this slide is just a kind of
a reminder of kind of the DOT's uh um our our compass This is kind of what we use to drive our overall culture and priorities on every project that the department works works on you know of uh our goals are always enhancing mobility
safety emergency access supply chain and improving operations along the strategic intermodal system You can kind of see on the compass there some of those uh main goals we have highlighted safety resiliency supply chain and the center
of everything we do is communities That is our our main customer and what we are trying to achieve throughout the state of Florida Mr Lopez Commissioner Heatherington has a question for you Oh yes go ahead Third bullet point improve intersection 126 Boulevard boulevard Um
and Martin is that uh Martin Luther King What where is 126 Boulevard that that's in Okchobee County Okay that is over um Oh that's the end of the corridor Yeah that's the end of the project limits
Okay Okay Thank you Commissioner Caps has a question too Yeah go ahead Yes Can you refresh our memories about all that is meant by the word strategic intermodal system um yes I have I think I have a rough idea but I'd like a
little better explanation That was um somewhere back in uh year 2000 between 2000 2005 somewhere around there the uh state uh decided we needed to prioritize which corridors have a
strategic economic or uh cultural historic interest to the state mostly of economic interest that carry either a high level of uh truck traffic or provide connectivity to key facilities ities such as airports ports or are a
strategic link you know in the the state of uh traversing the state And those uh those prioritized corridors were identified as the strategic intramotal system that would qualify for uh a way of prioritizing state funding within the
the system Does a hurricane evacuation factor into that as well yes uh hurricane evacuation routes intermodal connections Those are uh some of the things that factor into the SIS Uh I guess Ron is our SIS coordinator If you
have anything to add to that not really Um primary primary focus is connecting regions um across the state So it's not really a regional network It's an intra regional network So that's the the main goal of the system is to preserve that transportation throughout the state from
key points from one place to another whether it's vehicular airport serving vehicles freight whatnot Thank you Um next slide please Okay so kind of getting to the actual uh
uh state road 710 You can kind of see a map right here And this is just to give you an idea how the um all of the projects are being segmented You can see segment one is actually made up of three
projects that this that includes uh the realignment of uh Martin Highway County Road 714 to the intersection of Southeast 126 Boulevard as we spoke about And it includes the widening from uh the Martin Okachobee County line up
to that uh southeast 126th uh boulevard in Okachobee County Segment two is essentially uh the two to four lane widening from the Okachobee Martin County line uh going
east up to the FPL access road Segment three is the two to four lane widening from the FPL access road to the intersection of uh Alapata Road And segment four is uh the two to four lane
widening from Alapata Road going into Indian uh Indian town uh up to Van Burren to connect with the segment of existing fourlane within u or five lane section within um Indian town Uh next
slide please So again just looking back this uh slide is just showing you you know we've completed the PD&E study we uh have uh in addition to capacity as we said this project is highly driven by safety So we
are looking in addition to the two to four lane widening for capacity itself we are evaluating uh how to improve safety with these improvements and uh and that's and right now we're in uh we've completed 2024 is
when we started we awarded all of the uh design consultants for each of those segments in 2024 Um you know the slide is just showing you at the bottom there challenges that we'll face which we'll talk about a little bit more but they include high
construction cost stakeholder cooperation high utility relocation cost and right ofway impact cost Go to the next slide please So again this uh the first segment you can kind of see a closeup there This is the realignment of Southwest Martin Highway
from County Road 714 to intersect with Southeast 126 Boulevard and State Road 710 Uh both myself and Dearis Williams are the DOT project managers for these uh three three segments You can see
uh uh financial pro there's these are actually made up of three projects I should say project FP 447555-1 and two are the projects that address the realignment of uh Martin Highway to Southeast 126th
Boulevard and that will be a a signalized intersection upon completion and project 45333-3 will be performing the widening of State Road 710 from the county line up to uh that the intersection of uh
Southeast 126th Boulevard All three of these projects will uh take place will be let together So they will have the same construction schedule for for all three Next slide please And you can kind of see here is an overview of uh the
construction schedule The uh design started in June 2024 We're hoping to have the initial plans completed initial plans and the typical section uh signed off and agreed upon in uh by
the end of 2025 this year Around the beginning early 2026 we should have our first uh public information meeting to get more feedback from uh the public And uh once that's complete we will start the right-of-way
acquisition process in towards the end of uh 2026 starting in the fourth quarter And by December 2028 we should have the design completed with uh construction starting
in July 2029 and construction for this project is currently funded for that uh for fiscal year 2030 which starts in July 2029 Next slide And uh next segment is
one of the ones that uh a little bit more more complex So I have the design consultant here to tell you a little bit more information about that Go ahead Um good morning Uh my name is Jin with uh Kim Horn Associates consultant to
Robert Lopez for this segment of 710 Uh this segment extend from uh the Okchobee and Mountain County line all the way to Apino access road So today 710 is a two two-lane
two-way roadway with occasion passing lane Uh the existing rightway is ranging from 60 to 90 ft And this corridor of uh the segment of the 710 is flanked by the API transmission line uh which is
protoer gas transmission and the GFR gas to the north All those utilities on the located on the north side of 710 and on the south side you have a CXX that flanking 710 So in addition to those um stakeholder
that we you know we mentioned earlier obviously we're going to be coordinating with South Florida water management district to you know to discuss the permit criteria Uh FC does have a existing road crossing uh 710 somewhere around midpoint of this segment Um they
may be a potential future spur that they may proposing we in a in a in a coordination with FC as well right now Uh and al also we'll be coordinating with Martin County to talk about the uh uh the construction and maintenance
agreement So what you see on the screen over here is a 3D rendering of what they proposed the PDN uh preferred alternative Uh it was based upon a uh 2011 PD that was completed back in those days uh is they're proposing a fourlane
divided uh still 710 um and 65 miles per hour a SIS facilities uh with a share use path and what we call intercepted ditch on the north side of the all this utility easement Uh the challenges with this
typical section obviously that is going to require the API transmission relocation Uh API today does have a 100 ft uh eastman just north of a 710 with with the proposed improvement The epina
would have to relocate north of the north of the gas or gulfream easement and the rightway needs for this project based upon the PD was a two about 276 uh acre and that would require three business relocations
Wow Yes M so instead uh we are proposing a typical section still in in you know on there that's ongoing coordination with the key stakeholder that would convert the existing 710 or still 710 to a new eastbound roadway uh by so doing
we be able to uh place a dry swell uh just north of the westbound the new westbound roadway and that would avoid the FG FP now transmission relocation uh obviously That's going to be a lot of work that we have to doing that's include the uh the intercept the ditch
the chair use path the frontage road but with this configuration as of right now we'll be able to avoid business relocation it would also reduce construction cost uh not mentioned the the storm water man water management treatment will be reduced as
well and the rightway we can reduce that rightway need to 230 uh acre still that's going to be a lengthy in um uh costly rightway acquisition for this project So this typical section just present a 2D tri section What it does is
actually basically just to give you an idea of the challenges that we have uh with this project with this segment Uh obviously there's going to be lot of stakeholder coordination that's taking place and being uh we have already met FC CXX South Florida water management I
will be coordinating with uh Martin County to talk to them about the uh uh potential construction maintenance agreement uh to take over to maintain the intercepted ditch the share use path and potentially the frontage road Uh as Rob mentioned earlier you know the
construction cost is uh right now as of department in the long range estimate estimate uh is about the 128 million for this segment 150 million for this segment 30 million for the segment to the west at uh the
intersection realignment we just talked about earlier So we started the con the design back in June of 2024 We anticipate to have initial set of plan by the fourth quarter of this year Um and we're going to hold a first first public meeting in the first quarter 2026
uh with a right away to start in first quarter 2027 We're going to have to have another uh public information meeting by the third quarter of 2029 before the project goes to construction in July of 2030 So with that I'm going to pass over
to NRI Just a quick question sir If the construction starts as you mentioned how long is the project what's the construction timeline like when will the road be done so this is about the 10 miles section over here We anticipate somewhere around with the current
construction um it's about the four to five years Keep that in mind Okay Thank you Jane Uh my name is Gre Lante uh consultant project manager with a associates So the segment I'll be
talking about is the uh segment that goes from the FPL access road to Alapata Um this uh project is approximately about 5.2 2 miles and is also doing the same thing widening from uh the existing two-lane section uh to a fourlane uh divided section Uh this here also uh
shows the uh typical section that is the PDNE that was originally uh you know identified for this corridor As you can see uh one of the key things that they had is that they were reconstructing uh both of the uh lanes that is the the existing eastbound lanes as well as the
um constructing a new uh set of uh lanes for the westbound Um this actually had a very uh big rightway footprint similar to what Jen uh mentioned uh about 88 ft to 162 ft in terms of additional rightway that you would need
What we're doing as part of the proposed uh improvement is to reduce that rightaway footprint So what we're doing is basically um keeping the existing uh two-lane section uh and using it as your eastbound lanes and then constructing a new section for the uh westbound lanes
Uh by so doing we are able to reduce the existing the rightway requirements by approximately about uh 40 ft Uh there's also going to be the shared use part similar to what Jen uh described in the other segments and then also um we going to have the uh there's one business
relocation that we identified which is a plant nursery that would have to be relocated as part of uh this project Another thing that I also just wanted to mention very briefly is that we also uh in talks with CSX just as Jen mentioned uh to look at the potential of having an
easement on the on the south side uh with a CSX so that we can be able to regrade the existing swell This is a a swell that is currently being shared uh between the FDOT and the CSX is a joint use SW but we would need to uh regrade that to be able to uh make that more
official Uh as far as the uh schedule for this uh project um this project also started back in May of last year Uh the initial plans are anticipated for the fourth quarter of this year that is by the end of this year would have the initial plans Uh we anticipate to also
have the public meeting by the fourth quarter of 2026 and then uh after that the rightway starts and then the final plans is anticipated by July of 2030 and construction is in January of 2031 Construction for this segment is not
currently funded Now the next segment I wanted to talk about is the last segment that goes from Alapata uh to uh Van Beern This is approximately just a little less than um a mile long Uh but it is uh more of the
urbanized area You actually getting into uh the uh Indian town area So this is the proposed typical section we have for this segment This is actually going to be an urban section with kebab and gada on both sides uh
separated by 22t median Uh it's going to be 45 miles per hour versus a 65 that we have on the rural segment And then uh similar to what uh we're doing on the other segments we're looking at utilizing the uh existing uh two-lane roadway as the um the eastbound lanes
and then widening to the north uh to be able to facilitate the uh the westbound uh lanes Um there's also going to be a 10-ft shed use path on both sides of the uh roadway And uh we also as part of this is the project that is also looking at the signal warrants analysis at the
Alapata uh road intersection Um as far as the schedule is concerned for this uh segment that is the last segment the urbanized section uh is also started at the same time as the previous the um adjacent segments Uh we're going to having the initial plans by uh the
end of this year as well Uh the public uh meeting is anticipated for the first quarter of 20 uh 27 uh final plans is for September of 2027 and the construction is uh scheduled for July of 2029 Uh although it's not funded this is
actually ahead of the uh previous actually it is funded that that was funed This one is yeah this segment the the segment between um Alipata and Van Beern is it was um it was shown to be funded for construction in the draft tenative work program that was presented
in December and you all approved that All right So yeah this one is actually going to go ahead of the other segments of the uh 710 corridor Commissioner Heatherington has a question that was you answered some of the question So you mentioned that the signal warrant for um
Alipata 609 and 710 was a part of that segment and you made me nervous that that was going to be a part of the entire project but that one has been funded and now the the signal warranty study is part of this um project the lightning from Van Burren to correct but
the but the priority is a is a separate priority on your priority on this board's priority Okay So has that been So the warrant the warrant hasn't been started the analysis We are actually um you know working through the analysis now It's
not completed yet We anticipate to have that done by the by the summer but it's been started The analysis warrant has been started Okay Thank you Commissioner Collins That's Mayor
Follow Okay Has anybody considered realigning Alipata Road to intersect with Martin Luther King you're going to put a traffic light there right that's that's that's an interesting uh comments This is something that it's
about I think it's about you have about um maybe a quarter mile uh distance between uh uh Martin Luther King and um and Alapata Currently the Alapata intersection is actually a four you know you have you know it's a fourleg
intersection because there's a small section that actually goes to the developments on the south side but yes that is uh we hadn't you know taken that into consideration in looking at connecting those two you have or you have not we haven't we hadn't taken that into consideration
just to clarify that's that's really a conversation between the village of Indiantown and the county I mean they're consultants to fot you know performing a scope of work that has and directed to them of what the circumstances are And I think that's you know that that's something that the village of Indian
Town Council and the Board of County Commissioners if they wanted to make that future change that would be something of those two boards would need to discuss or work out Any further questions for DOT or the
design team commissioner Collins is that you yes Okay How do we move the previous project forward faster with people dying with the type of accidents that are happening there you guys have heard a consistent theme
from us How do we move that timeline do you have an internal mechanism that you can move that timeline faster is there something that can be done i guess uh if you go back to do we need
the governor to write a letter like what what do we need which se uh can you go back to talking about helping us okay I can go here Sorry So I'm assuming there you go You're referring to this to the How do we move that faster um we we've
looked at it many times that July 30th is with the the amount of right of way that needs to be acquired That is the earliest it it could it could happen Is there any sort of internal emergency declaration like what what can be done
to make that happen faster to move those meetings sooner to have public meetings and these things happening quicker um is there something this board can do to leverage to call somebody to write a letter that can make you guys I can't think of
it happening faster than July 2030 July 2030 is you know everything happening ideal already That is the absolute Yeah I I think this is a high priority for district 4 for the state for the state Um obviously it's it's the Martin and
Pio's number one priority the the important thing about the funding is it's not only what funding is available but also the timing of the project Um district 4 has definitely expedited all segments of this project and the fact
that those two long segments are going to be ready for construction in fiscal year 31 is huge Fiscal year 31 for the state begins July 1st n um 20 2030 And so the fact that that on the schedule
for these two projects these projects are going to be ready for construction in the fifth year of the of next year's draft tenative work program So if you if the board wanted to write a letter to um the district secretary or even the state secretary and just explaining the fact
that the timing of the project will be ready for um um funding um the fifth year of the next draft program to I mean that that's that's those that's really what's missing in this project I mean I got the a question last week about so nothing's going to be done until maybe
fiscal year 31 And I mean clearly FDOT is doing a lot with this project with the Javant um design and the right-of-way acquisition process Um I know legislation is going on I mean the legislature is session is going on now Um maybe not this meeting but maybe you
know by you know by May the May or June meeting possibly the June meeting if this board wanted to write a letter to the district office um and just really put the importance of you know this project's going to be ready for funding in the fifth year of the next work program that that you know the um safety
issues that are happening on this road that that would be something that um really would need to be looked at this this meeting would probably be too soon I think since session is still going on But I would I would think that you know by the spec certainly by the June
meeting by the before the end of the fiscal year when you all are approving your list of project priorities again and your um transportation improvement program you all adopt those in June would be a good time to um send a letter to the the state on that That would be
my recommendation I I would just may maybe say you know like uh you know you look at this typical section probably the two most complicated things um that would probably take time One is that proposed easement with it says fec but that's actually CSX that proposed
easement with CSX If that falls into place and we get CSX to uh all the terms to make that happen that's probably one thing If that happens this year we get that uh in place that uh and likewise
the that interceptor uh treatment uh BM that's to the uh far north side of the project if we have everything with Martin County kind of agreed upon with that and the residents as well by
probably um we might be able to start that the right-of-way acquisition a few months earlier and so Maybe by early 2026 we might be able to say you know that July
2030 could potentially move to March of 2030 which would be one fiscal year sooner That that would be like absolutely if we're very fortunate I appreciate that we can be doing because you know a lot of what happens in here is crossing tees dotting eyes you know
prioritizing projects and but there are some of you who have been here when the parents of people who have died on that road you know we have to interact with the people who their families that show up in tears because somebody's dead So
if I appreciate your commitment if you if you can continue to drive this if there's something we can do letters we can write anything that we can do to leverage it happening faster obviously done right but quicker I would appreciate it Yeah Commissioner Heatherington Oh go ahead Yeah I I would
just add that um it's my understanding too that well this is certainly a rural corridor and I know that there's different buckets of funding that potentially are available for rural corridors versus um not And I know
during the last census I'm told that Indian Town had kind of been lumped in with the St Lucy County and lost some of its rural designation So I'd be curious just to to look into and investigate Is
there anything that we could do to um define that corridor and not be lumped in sort of with St Lucy County and make sure that we are it is a designated rural area in either the village of Indian Town or that section of
unincorporated Martin County to make sure that we're eligible for as many pots of rural funding as possible Um I guess uh Ron do you have anything to add or Tony Tony's as far as rural goes i believe the unfunded segment you
know like if you go back to uh this slide two and I mean two and three are the segments that are unfunded and um I guess you know Ron do you have anything to so we're we're actively seeking funding from pretty
much every mechanism we have So the these two projects particularly um are the two highest unfunded needs that we have in the district um for construction So every year we're going right back to central office and whatnot and making
sure they understand that So our management has talked to them They are aware of it You guys have gone up there before um and and spoke to them So we're continuing to do that As far as um the type of I would just sorry to interrupt I would just ask that you look into make sure that we qualify for that rural
designation and if not to come back to this body and see if there's something we could do with the either you know congressman's office or census to make sure that that section is designated rural under those requirements
Okay Thank you Any further questions for DOT or the design team uh let's see Commissioner Reid Yes This isn't specific to this agenda item Should I wait until comments from board members or is this okay now for FDOT i
would go right right ahead Um my question is is there what is uh the application or is there like a form number for a signalized traffic light with FOT the form number the I mean the like if they what do they call it or get I guess
there's um we follow you know uh signal warrant process that is outlined in uh the MUTCD the manual of uniform traffic control devices and that uh that stud that uh process is pretty much the
nationwide accepted uh uh screening process to determine whether a traffic signal would be beneficial for a or not So like they would put the application in and then F dot would determine if one was even necessary I
guess or well it goes through that screening process I mean saying DOT determines it It's uh it is determined through that process regardless of who performs that study It is the the same process that it goes through Has FOD ever ran into it to where you didn't
have uh easement signed from property owners and you had a signalized light installed i mean we we if you're asking if there is a location that would meet the requirement for a signal but there was not enough right of way to install it For example if if a signalized light was
installed and they didn't have the easements from property owners signed how would how does it work then like if if FOT didn't have easements signed like if the developer had it I guess with an application there was no
easement signed a signalized light was installed and then FTO can't access it to maintain that signalized light Has that ever happened if if a a signal was installed by a developer and uh it's been in operation for many years and
it's been maintained by the department for many years we we do have a a process called a maintenance map where we can uh claim the department will now own this if no one objects to it If all the the public uh and the public has a certain
time frame during that to if they object to that Um if we've been maintaining piece of infrastructure for so many years we have a process to go through to that we will claim that we will continue to maintain it if no one objects to it
Okay that's it Any further questions can I ask a question sure What if they object you have to come up to to the microphone please And identify yourself and when you're finished please fill out a request to speak form for our clerk Thank you Okay
Sorry Um Jeff Dazelle um the question is on an easement If they don't have it and they the developer installs the traffic light and it's on a private
property what is the process to object to it so it doesn't become a long-term thing meaning the light was just installed And I'm talking about the Costco light
I uh I I I have never had a a situation where uh traffic signal has been objected to Nor normally people that live in that vicinity want want a tra the traffic signal there So um I
honestly am not uh I don't know if Dearis or anyone else has any experience with that of objecting to it If uh if it's objected to then and uh it's it's challenged to that level I know uh like the department has to prove that the the
infrastructure is needed um and it goes through a process to determine if it's truly needed or not and if it uh I guess Demaris you have something to add I mean we have um the
the traffic engineering manual and there there are um standards for warrants So one of it has to do where a development is generating um a high number of chip trip generations to and from and so that
warrants the a signal Um also they they the the traffic operations office and DOT which approves also the whatever is done from the signal study they they analyze where is the closest signal from the south to the north or if we're
looking at east west east and west because we don't want too many closely spaced um signals because you know as as somebody's traveling they might you know kind of get confused which light they're looking at since are too closely So
there's like you know a a slew of signal warrant um conditions that okay which one does it meet but it's all documented So if something is denied it's probably because it it meet it doesn't meet any of them So then it might might become a
political issue Okay You know someone really wants it then I I don't know how those get approved But you know maybe something like that has to happen Well I mean he he's referring to if an existing one is in place I haven't dealt with that but so I can't give you an exact
answer I would imagine if uh you know it's objected to and it's still determined that it's necessary for the well-being of the general public in the area a process of acquisition would have to take place and whoever owns it would have to be compensated for it
That's okay Thank you Go ahead Um but uh I think that's any further questions for DOT or the 710 design team Commissioner Reed Oh he didn't really get So the question was the process to
object I don't I don't know That's that's not in our purview You're going to have to get in touch with the uh relevant u it's uh DOT people We can't we can't answer your questions It's Yeah it's it's there's not one posted When there is one posted we'll uh we'll have
a little bit better answer for you on that Okay Thank you Or I can I can get that answer Commissioner Reid Yes Uh how would I acquire a copy of the developer application for that signalized light oh uh I contacted us go to your city and
copy of their development plans and approvals The city would have that The city staff would have that City staff will have a copy of the application Okay Commissioner Heatherington Old Light any further questions no Oh light Uh do
we have any comments from advisory committee members u I'll just uh to leave off you know um just let you know we also do have a a project website open Uh you can open it real quick That has a lot of the in Oh if you go back if you click on the
link there just wanted to kind of uh show you there is a full project website for the State Road 710 that has a lot of the information we've uh we just went through and has a lot of the more detailed If you scroll down it has
all of the segments broken down as we spoke about and all of the documents including the noise study and the PD&E study and the storm water um drainage report Uh so another good site to direct
uh the public to anybody needs any more detailed information And we we should be we're hoping to post more here as we we continue Um and with that I'll just give the DOT safety message If you go back to that last slide
doesn't get paid if he doesn't do that Yeah So again you heard one safety message but we can never have too much safety right so this is uh national distracted driving awareness month So uh the department would like to share it's a monthly safety campaign which in this
case is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month So please remember that you can set your phone to do not disturb before you buckle up and start your playlist before you shift into gear I know that's um something I know I need to remind myself on many times So I
think it is a that's a a good message So let's get everyone home safe And uh I'll I'll leave with that That's about all I had unless anyone has any questions My contact information is there As I said the website is there as well that has uh any of the uh any information that you
might uh be looking for immediately and if you can't find it you can always contact uh the department Thank you I'll leave it with that Thank you Any further questions comments from board members nope Uh any notes i would just I end the
meeting comments I would just like uh it's not lost on me that a majority of the 15 or 20 people 15 people that are here uh representing FDOT and the various consultants drive all the way up from Fort Lauderdale mostly uh or some
even further to come and work with us But I also know that your knowledge about our local issues you I listen to you You know the roads You're not looking at notes You you are passionate about the issues that are important to us And I wanted to thank you all very
much for your for your professionalism Thanks Um just under notes we do have the development review map that was updated Um we're doing that quarterly now So this map was recently updated to include all the uh updated information
regarding the developments within the county Indiantown and the city of Stewart which are the only uh municipalities that provide us with their information currently Um so those updates have been made and in June or I'm sorry yeah in um June we'll be
updating or I'm sorry July we'll be updating these projects um our list of project priorities on the map So these um you might see some added priorities here or some of these might have um been completed So um with that uh I do want to share that if you wanted to help
navigate this map always feel free to contact me directly the the link can be found on our homepage Thank you Um the the next meeting is going to be a little earlier It's at the second Monday in May May 12th and it is going to be in the afternoon at 1:30
Thank you Commissioner Reid Yeah I just wanted to reiterate my comments from last meeting about uh sidewalks and rightaway in the land development code in the county I don't know if that's something I should mention again or if there was
an update to it I I so at at at last NO meeting um there was an agenda item for sidewalks and rightways and this was specifically Fisherman's Cove I believe on Caner and I know Martin County eventually their
goal is you know they're putting sidewalks in neighborhoods but how does that work for the land development code when you can't park two vehicles in your driveway because you're blocking the rightway and the sidewalk talk That's a question for probably for the board of county commissioners not for
the MP Okay Any further comments questions we are adjourned