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Lake County officials hope Scott’s budget will fund key road projects

Lake County officials hope Scott’s budget will fund key road projects

by DeVore Design, December 8, 2015

Lake County and local transportation officials remain hopeful they will receive funding for key transportation projects in Lake County in light of Gov. Rick Scott’s budget proposal to invest $9.2 billion in the Department of Transportation’s Work Program.

T. J. Fish, executive director of the Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization, said funding from the Department of Transportation’s work program could help fund projects such as County Road 466A.

A top priority project in Lake County, CR 466A connects Lake and Sumter counties and cuts through The Villages.

County officials have had difficulty in securing money to fund nearly a mile to complete the project. Two phases of the project have been funded.

Jim Stivender, the county’s public works director, said he recently met with the director of the Florida Department of Transportation.

“We put three key projects in his mind,” Stivender said. “One was completing County Road 466A, Citrus Grove Road connecting the turnpike interchange to U.S. 27 and, thirdly, after the Wekiva Parkway gets built, State Road 46.”

Stivender said he remains hopeful funding will come through for those projects if the governor’s budget request is approved.

Fish said the additional funding would also keep some priority projects from being delayed, citing the six-laning of U.S. Highway 27/441 from Lake Ella Road north to Avenida Central in Lady Lake.

Because of the number of projects underway in the region after the recession and rising construction costs, that project was pushed back to 2020 instead of 2019, Fish said.

If the funds come through, that project may be put back on schedule.

“The governor’s budget helps deal with these cost increases,” Fish said of construction costs.

Furthermore, Fish said the increased funding would also enable the MPO to add new projects to the program.

For example, a project widening State Road 44 in Eustis from U.S. 441 to Orange Avenue, could be added to the five-year program if the funding is made available.

The governor’s budget also includes $46.6 million for bike and pedestrian trails.

“This will ensure we continue the success we have been experiencing with the Coast-to-Coast Connector,” (a 250-mile-long trail beginning at the Gulf of Mexico and ending at the Atlantic Ocean in Brevard County), Fish said.

The trail will connect 19 state, regional and local trails in nine counties, including Lake and Sumter, from Florida’s east coast to its west coast.

Fish said he hopes the funding will help the MPO advance the Mount Dora trail and Wekiva Trail from Mount Dora east to Seminole and Orange counties.