http://www.urbantallahassee.com/index.php/forums/viewtopic.php?p=37072#p37072
Springhill Road will get an upgrade, but traffic data has shown that Lake Bradford Rd is the preferred route from the airport to downtown. Also, FSU wants to better connect airport traffic to its new developments which will be (and is) occurring in the southwest campus. There will also be a lot of activity occurring along the Orange Avenue corridor to help increase development in and around Innovation Park.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/10/01/florida-states-quest-improve-access-sw-campus-gets-support-blueprint-board/717969001/
A Florida State University proposal to partner with Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency planners to create a network of roads to improve access to its southwest campus is gaining momentum.
The board of the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency – made up of city of Tallahassee and Leon County commissioners – recently endorsed a concept expanding what previously had been approved in 2015 as the Airport Gateway into a new Gateway District.
The Gateway District concept would include the addition of a new road proposed by Florida State, from Orange Avenue through its property near the Don Veller Seminole Golf Course and Club that would extend to Stuckey Avenue and link up with the FAMU Way extension at Lake Bradford Road.
The FSU addition first was proposed to the Intergovernmental Agency board in February by Kevin Graham, executive director of FSU’s Real Estate Foundation. Since then, Blueprint staff and FSU engaged in meetings to identify opportunities that could be created by linking FSU’s addition to the Blueprint Airport Gateway project. The Gateway District idea emerged.
Here’s what’s being considered:
The original Airport Gateway Project includes improvements on Springhill and Lake Bradford Roads from Tallahassee International Airport to Gaines Street, approximately three miles. The route would include new landscaping, bicycle lanes, potentially new travel lanes and a median along Springhill. Added to the Lake Bradford portion would be landscaping, bike lanes and roundabouts leading to Gaines Street.
The estimated cost is $58.7 million. This includes money for right-of-way purchases, but no money is allocated for the widening.
The proposed Gateway District includes enhancements to seven miles of roads while providing the same level of improvements to Springhill and Lake Bradford Roads from the airport to Orange Avenue.
The Gateway District also includes improvements to a segment of Orange Avenue. The Florida Department of Transportation is considering widening Orange Avenue from Lake Bradford to a new road leading to the entrance of FSU’s property west of Pottsdamer Street. FSU would donate right of way property to make this happen to fulfill the vision of the Gateway District.
A new two-lane boulevard would be built beginning at Orange Avenue at the entrance to FSU’s property west of Pottsdamer, continuing to Stuckey Avenue and ending at Lake Bradford Road, where it connects to the FAMU Way Expansion.
Under this proposal, the estimated cost of the Gateway District is $78.8 million. It would include the original Blueprint investment of $58.7 million, but now would include $9 million in right-of-way donations and costs for the new road paid by FSU and FDOT would contribute $12 million for construction costs associated with Orange Avenue.
Blueprint staff and board members endorsed the District concept as a more complete proposal for improving travel in the southwest corridor.
The new road proposed by FSU also would reduce the traffic now generated on Pottsdamer Street through the Callen neighborhood by those headed to FSU’s properties and to Innovation Park, planners said.
“The Gateway District concept, if approved by the Intergovernmental Agency later this year, would positively impact the Springhill Road community through the estimated $9.5 million in new enhancements (sidewalks, lighting, landscaping). Additionally, the proposed new, north-south roadway between Orange Avenue and Stuckey Street, would likely reduce the traffic through the Providence and Callen neighborhoods as those traveling to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, the MagLab, Innovation Park, would have a more direct route.”
“This is a game-changer,” Dailey said of the Gateway District concept. “I think it’s desperately needed. It will have impact on the airport.”
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