If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. "The only thing we have is our voice," commission Vice Chairman Craig Curry said at one point in the discussion, which including public comment lasted more than two hours. SR 9/I-95 at SR 842/Broward Boulevard Interchange. The first goal of the Ocala Gazette is to deliver trustworthy local journalism so corruption, misinformation and abuse are not hidden from the public or unchallenged. You can find recent press releases, public notices, media contacts, links to . hZYoF+|$-". "Smart build, that first seeks to expand existing infrastructure, avoids damage to our ecosystem, the nature in the Nature Coast and the foundation of our ecotourism and our rural lifestyle that many value here," Seveska said. Directions & Map, 1996 - 2020 Florida's Turnpike in Florida Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. An FDOT map shows the four corridor alternatives for the proposed Northern Turnpike Extension. Support WUSF now by giving monthly, or make a one-time donation online. Southern Connector Extension. But the three task forces formed to make recommendations on the M-CORES highways all reported they couldnt find any purpose served by them. If you dont know the history of M-CORES, heres the Readers Digest version: The then-Senate president, Bill Galvano, met with some people who build roads, the Florida Transportation Builders Association, after they gave his political action committee a big campaign contribution. OCOEE, Fla. (WCJB) - After opposition from residents in multiple North Central Florida counties, the Florida Department of Transportation will not pursue the project to extend the Florida Turnpike. Procedurally, Stone and Gold were prohibited from asking for a reconsideration of Stone's original motion. A programmed project to widen the Turnpike Extension from three to . Dunnellon takes a stand: Council tells state it doesn't want northern extension of the Florida Turnpike Development decision: SW. %PDF-1.7 % Under Florida law, email addresses are public records. There are four separate proposals to the Florida Turnpike that would extend the interstate from Wildwood through combinations of these counties: Citrus, Levy, Marion and Sumter. Select an exit, travel plaza, toll plaza or other location from the map, or use the location list to get information and a close-up map of that location, plus any nearby gas stations. If I were a violent person, Id recommend the opponents of the Northern Turnpike Extension show up for the DOT informational sessions toting a pistol and pump six bullets through the maps showing the routes. Opponents said there is little need for the toll road and it would destroy some of the last remaining rural areas north of Tampa Bay. I-75 Express Lane Projects. At least two of the potential routes show it cutting through Levy County. We use our collective power to take a very hard line against these "Roads to Ruin". Nothing!. In an informational packet to county commissioners, it lists weaknesses common to all four corridors: They only provide for northwest-southeast travel from U.S. 19 to Interstate 75/Turnpike at Wildwood. Two of the alignments cut swaths through Sumter, Marion and Levy counties, meaning they are almost certain to fail. Editorial:Don't extend turnpike, build other new highways through North Florida. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)/Florida's Turnpike Enterprise has released 4 options to extend the Florida Turnpike from Wildwood to US19/98. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and children. Florida Turnpike officials could add four additional lanes elevated or separated from local expressway traffic. The approved Turnpike Extension interchange is to be located in northern Miami-Dade County at the proposed west side construction of NW 170th Street (Milepost 37). They heard about it when notices from the Florida Department of Transportation told them about a pair of informational meetings on Dec. 7 (Chiefland) and Dec. 9 (Lecanto). But wait, I said, the Legislature killed off those expensive and ridiculous roads to nowhere! The Homestead Extension (HEFT) provides an alternate route to metropolitan Miami from the Overseas Highway, avoiding much of the congestion along U.S. 1 (Dixie Highway). "The Department deeply values community input and is committed to thoroughly exploring all concerns received during this process.". I am talking about the Northern Turnpike Extension, which is supposed to branch off from the Florida Turnpike in Wildwood and head north toward some as-yet-unnamed terminus. See this map in color with this story at www.RiverlandNews.com.The Citrus County Chamber of Commerce has joined forces with the Ocala and Dunnellon chambers in asking the state to work with them on a northern turnpike extension route that addresses common environmental and other concerns. Presently, three of the four proposed routes would pass through Marion County. This new 49th Street will also meander eastward, curving to become NW 35th Street and ending at NE 58th Avenue. Ruthie Davis Schlabach. Instead, on a contentious 3-2 vote, the commission agreed to send a letter to the Florida Department of Transportation, urging it to give Marion County governmenta seat at the table as the state studies the proposed highway. The Florida Department of Transportation has decided to broaden the input process as it considers a possible northern extension of Florida's Turnpike.. You can find recent press releases, public notices, media contacts, links Alisha Hart told commissioners that she had 250 signatures from residents living in the Florida Highlands indicating their desire not to have the roadgo through Marion County. Extending the four lanes of NW 70th Avenue to the new NW 49th Street extension that will connect the east side of I-75 with its warehouse complexes (Chewy, AutoZone, Amazon, etc.) We continue the fight to stop the Northern Turnpike Extension toll road and the sprawl inducing expansions along US 19/98. %%EOF Search All Exits along Florida's Turnpike traveling Northbound in Florida. Use exit markers and travel plaza markers to navigate to that exit's page. Select an exit, travel plaza, toll plaza or other location from the map, or use the location list to get information and a close-up map of that location, plus any nearby gas stations. On Tuesday, June 14, the Sumter County Board of Commissioners got an earful from close to 120 concerned voters adorned with bright pink "Rural Florida Says No Toll Roads" stickers, waving neon green "No Build" signs, and donning "#NoBuild No Turnpike Extension" T-shirts; a loud and clear sign that Sumter residents want no part of the proposed Northern Turnpike . The latest news and how to stay informed. For example, it said the state show how the turnpike extension would enhance the traffic flow on Interstate 75 and other major roadways such as County Road 484, State Road 200 and State Road 40. In the face of determined opposition from environmentalists and other entities, the FDOT announced in August it was pumping the brakes on four proposed routes that would extend Floridas Turnpike from its terminus at Interstate 75 in Wildwood northwest to U.S. 19 in Levy County. 07/25/17. Moving from statewide to more local transportation issues, Assistant County Administrator Tracy Straub spoke about scheduled traffic projects coming up quickly in Marion County, including improvements needed to take some of the strain off of State Road 200. Even a vehicle just stalled on the shoulder can cause a five-, six-, 10-mile backup. State Road 589 (SR 589), also known as the Veterans Expressway and Suncoast Parkway, is a north-south toll road near the Florida Gulf Coast. #5315 Dynamic Map Of Sawgrass Expressway. Some of the state roads in Florida are : State Road A1A - This road runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. Providing timely responses to inquiries from the press, government officials, and the public is a crucial function of the Florida Department of Transportation. On Monday, a united Dunnellon City Council unanimously approved a resolution calling on the state to adopt the "no build" option. SunPass. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Dunnellon takes a stand:Council tells state it doesn't want northern extension of the Florida Turnpike, Development decision:SW Marion land owner gets second delay to finalize 841-home development near SummerGlen, Local growth:Ocala/Marion among nation's fastest growing metros with home construction up 42% in a year. Toggle navigation. He said it would leave a "scar" on the community for a considerable time,and traffic in the area would be severely impactedif the roadway is allowed to come close to Dunnellon. Meanwhile, reporters dug up the one real beneficiary of all this asphalt: a billionaire named Thomas Peterffy. The Levy County routes steamroll right through the longleaf pine flatwoods and swamps of the 58,000-acre Goethe State Forest, as well as smashing a hole in the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross-Florida Greenway, a currently unbroken 110-mile linear park that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. No additional submittals have been received or nor any requests for permits from either project, she said. WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7 | State to halt plans for Northern Turnpike Extension. Staff drew up a resolution to that effect to send to . Citrus County. City Council members Jan Cubbage, Louise Kenny, Valerie Hanchar, Anita Williams and the mayor all voted yes for the resolution. I wasn't always a morning person. Commissioners noted that this is a state project, authorized by law, and the study will happen with or without county government's involvement. Dunnellon Mayor Bill White said the amount of traffic coming and going through the city would be enormous. Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118,austin.miller@starbanner.comor@almillerosb. More than two miles of that route would slice through the middle of the Hlpata Tastanaki Preserve, the Cross Florida Greenway and the Goethe State Forest. An extension of the Suncoast Parkway opened Monday, the Florida Department of Transportation announced in a press release. But Stone said Bryant's language was tantamount to supporting the "no build" option. They will ask the state to remove three of the routes recommended for expanding the turnpike from where it now ends at Interstate 75 in Wildwood. The department studied four potential routes for the Northern Turnpike Extension Project. 407-532-3999 But when Pleasence looks for his body, its gone. For instance, in 2016, when the Florida DOT went ahead with building an extension for the lightly-used Suncoast Parkway, they cut through the Withlacoochee State Forest and obliterated the site of an ancient turpentine camp named Etna which was on the National Register of Historic Places. The routes are unlikely to meet the requirement that tolls generated by traffic flow fund 50 percent of debt service at the 12th year of operation. The recommendations closely follow what 1000 Friends advocated from day one: make identified improvements to I-75 to alleviate major traffic . If Florida Gov. Is something needed between I-75 and the west coast? he asked. MCORES is short forMulti-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, a 2019 state plan that called for building new toll roads in Florida. That proposed language failed 3-2, with Bryant, Curry and Chairman Carl Zalak voting no. Local governments in those communities have already objected to similar toll road plans in the past. About 1,000 people attended a public meeting on. Work on the proposed extension, Perdue said, will start up again in the next year or so with the agency re-engaging the potentially affected communities. If you do not want your email address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. It allows us to address congestion on I-75 and really look at our rural roads to address the growing needs of our state.. Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code. Municipalities that officially came out against the turnpike extension include Citrus County, Inverness, Levy County and the city of Dunnellon. The DOT secretary wrote a letter saying they would abandon their Coastal Connector plans and instead work on making Interstate 75 better. That one, released in 1978, featured a frightened young woman, played by scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, fleeing a masked and murderous psycho named Michael Myers, whose dialogue consisted of him breathing very loudly. We cover state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee. Its like a fricking slap in the face! she told me, then added, Excuse my language.. Promotional Rates were found for your code. The toll roads would help rural areas develop so as to accommodate all the new people moving into Florida. We embrace our communities, he said, but we know we have to do something. WUSF 89.7 depends on donors for the funding it takes to provide you the most trusted source of news and information here in town, across our state, and around the world. "And it does not plow through developed communities and force the removal of families.". Parts of this road also pass from the Key West at the southern corner of Florida and to Callahan in South Georgia. Brigitte Smith of Ocala said her daughter lives in Rolling Hills and the roadway would negatively affect that neighborhood. For such a supposedly educated fellow, our governor sure says a lot of stuff that sounds, well, lets be charitable and call it nave. Anyone with a lick of sense knows theres more to any highway than a roads a road. Building a road requires making choices. Folks in Levy County tell me they suspect the real aim here is to provide a highway for Peterffy and other developers. Its proposed route ran straight through a part of Marion County thats been dubbed the Horse Capital of the World, home to Floridas $2.6 billion equine industry. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency using the Florida Relay Service, 1 (800) 955-8771 (TDD) or 955-8770 (voice). The award is given to those who have made a significant contribution to the preservation of horse farms in Marion County. Bridlewood General Manager George Isaacs accepted the award. hb``c``^01G30ff? Florida's Turnpike. A series of speakers attending a workshop mostly opposed the planned toll road. SR 9/I-95 from SW 10th Street to Hillsboro Boulevard. The speakers said state officials should have conducted an independent study on the proposed paths and more strongly considered expanding existing roads. Email questions and comments to: Maps & Publications Sales at co-mapsandpubs@dot.state.fl.us. Three of the four proposed routes go through. Now Audubon Florida has weighed in and it turns out it also has concerns. The Southwest Florida Water Management District is asking the Department of Transportation about about the proposed expansion's impacts to both state-owned land and water resources, such as springs and the underground aquifer. At the behest of Senate Transportation Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, a Republican from Stuart, the Legislature repealed the toll road bill Galvano had wanted so badly. Mainly clear. Resident Diane Garte said this will hurt their livelihood. Phone: (850) 414-4050Email questions and comments to: Maps & Publications Sales at co-mapsandpubs@dot.state.fl.us, FDOT605 Suwannee St.Tallahassee, FL 32399Phone: (850) 414-4100Customer Service Portal. Mostly sunny. 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