Richard Clark, executive director of Monroe County Transit, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on with travel in the county.
With the opening of the Emergency Operations Center today, we’re reminded of how important transportation is in the event of an emergency.
Clark said, “We’ve already had a couple of mock emergencies between Key West Transit, the county and Miami Dade, we’ve all got a very, very good, cohesive action plan. Most of it revolves really around communication and how we get people to shelters, and what shelters are full, and the logistics of all of that, making sure who has gas, those kind of things.”
The Transportation Coordination Committee has been meeting, and they’ve been discussing the Overseas Highway and other issues.
Clark said, “We met with FDOT last year. The first iteration of the committee met, over a long period of time with many a public meeting, and they came up with close to 200 things throughout the Keys they’d like to see. It got prioritized to the top 12. Those were basically things that municipalities in the county all agreed were the priorities, and those top 12 were all addressed in some way, shape, form or fashion, be it by FDOT, the county or one of our municipalities. So a really good start. FDOT liked the process so much that they asked us to reconstitute it and do it again. They really want to see guidance from us. This is where we live and say, okay, where are your priorities for the Keys and how can FDOT help you achieve those priorities to make Overseas Highways safer? We actually had FDOT at our last board meeting, the freight plan, they have an action plan they put together. They had 20 actionable items throughout all of the Keys, all obviously on Overseas, which is the road that FDOT manages. They were eerily similar, but really were concerned with the flow of traffic and goods. It is the freight side of the world which really still helps everyone. So it was primarily extending right turn lanes, or creating right turn lanes and the same goes for left turn lanes in the median, creating safe ways for people to move over, be able to sit and make a safe left turn without impeding traffic. So those are the kind of things that I think not only really help us from a safety perspective, but lower people’s temperatures down when they when they have to stop and wait. As much of our problems come from an increase in traffic as it does to people I think just get frustrated.”
Is there actually discussion about rebuilding and expanding some of the highway?
Clark said, “They’re not talking about rebuilding. A turn lane is a minimal thing, especially when you’re just extending a right turn lane. You’re adding essentially 10 feet to 12 feet in a very finite area. Unless there is a safety concern, and it’s FDOT’s right of way, I can’t see FDOT taking anything back from our ability to use the right of way for whatever needs we’ve been using it for, for a very long time, and we’re still constrained by bridges that are primarily one lane in each direction, but you don’t want to create this big, massive throughput and then get constrained again at a bridge, it’s a really fixed object.”
What’s going on with the rebuilding of the Seven Mile Bridge?
Clark said, there have been “several planning, development and environment meetings by the consultant and FDOT. Some folks involved in the community, myself, and others in and around Marathon, really trying to understand the implications. It is a daunting, daunting task to think about every implication of building a bridge of that magnitude. Are we going to go south the whole way? And how are we going to treat the power lines as they slide back and forth? We’ve got infrastructure that goes underneath that bridge for water. That’s just a where to put it, and not including okay, well, how do we handle taking the old bridge down, and do we remove those corals individually and replant them? Do we use the current substructure elsewhere for artificial reefs? So there is a tremendous conversation being held, and it’ll take another two plus years just to go through all of the intricacies of how, what, when, why, where, whatever. What’s going to happen to our parks? What happens to Veterans Park up there, the beach, if that’s where the bridge comes over? So there’s a lot to consider and they are going to continue to do so, It will be a very, very public process and they’re they’ve trying their best. The best way for us to do it is to have as much public input as we can.”
Who are some of the participants that take part in providing input to FDOT?
Clark said, “Obviously, all of our elected officials in the East municipality, and the county, all take a look. The first step is what I’m doing right now. We’re going to schedule with civic organizations, the Rotaries, we’re going to go out to the Chambers, the guild in Key West. We need to involve as much of the public as we can so that we can have an understanding because what’s important to somebody in Key Largo is completely different to somebody in Big Pine. So we really need to get a holistic look at what everybody thinks and feels are the best things they could do to help us. Once we do that, we’ll go back in front of our elected bodies again and here’s everybody’s ideas. Then when we’re finished with that, we’ll have several meetings along the way, but the Coordination Committee will then sit down. The Coordination Committee is made up of elected officials from every single municipality and the county, one person from each and that’s where we sit down and we say, okay, here’s our priority list based on what we’ve heard, based on what our colleagues have told us, and that’s what we will present to FDOT in June, and that way FDOT has time to get it into their work plan and budget it.”
Conch Connect has been very successful.
Clark said, “It’s unbelievable. I had a phone call Friday with the two principals from our vendor, and they said this has been the most amazing start to service they’ve ever had. It was met with unbelievable fanfare and unbelievable demand. We’ve already added additional vehicles and service. At the rate we’re going, going to need to add even more before the season really gets underway. The nice thing is, right now, I think the numbers, the last I looked, 86% of people using Conch Connect are local people. There are people going to work and going to the grocery store. It’s local people, which is exactly what its intent was. Let’s find a way to help those who live here. Let’s find another option for them to be able to get to where they need to go and not get in their own car. Stay really safe and patient on the roads, and you’ll get there. Just take a deep breath. We live in the Keys.”