Road
Widening – Approved the ranking
of consultants for the widening of Metro Parkway between Daniels and Six Mile
Cypress/Ben C. Pratt parkways and gave the go-ahead to begin contract
negotiations with the top-ranked engineering firm, Inwood Consulting
Engineers.
This is a state road,
however, the county is advancing the design phase to increase the probability
that the state will fund (based on Metropolitan Planning Organization
priorities) the right-of-way and construction phases in the state’s
five-year work program. The
design phase will cost about $1 million.
The road would be widened from two lanes to six lanes.
The state will reimburse the county in fiscal year 2004-05.
For more information, call
Amy Davies at 479-8589.
Landscaping
Project – Approved a contract
with Valley Crest Landscape for the Daniels Parkway Landscape Irrigation
Project for $597,000.
This project will landscape
the three-mile stretch of Daniels Parkway from Jetport east of Interstate 75
to Six Mile Cypress/Ben C. Pratt Parkway, with enhanced landscaping at the
Worthington of Renaissance development.
The project calls for
installation of plant material, underground irrigation system, well, pump,
electrical, fencing, pavers, sod, directional boring and landscape and
irrigation maintenance. Worthington
will pay $128,000 of the cost for enhanced landscaping and first year’s
maintenance.
The project is being done
as part of the county’s LeeScape Program and continues an initial landscape
project completed in 2000 from Jetport to the entrance of Southwest Florida
International Airport. Commissioners
in October 1998 approved LeeScape, also known as the Roadway Landscape Master
Plan, after a consultant and the citizens Roadway Landscape Advisory Committee
spent 11 months holding public meetings and drafting the 181-page plan. Each year, the BOCC approves a new priority list of LeeScape
projects.
The county also is in the
process of installing another LeeScape project along College Parkway from
McGregor Boulevard to U.S. 41.
For more information, call
Pat Moore at 694-3334.