STEPPING UP SAFETY
FDOT DISTRICT 2
Five-year contract paves path for multiple
sidewalk and trail projects in northeastern Florida
By Jennifer Schmidt
A
ll too often, a dangerous
scenario plays out in certain
Florida counties. With no
sidewalk available, pedestrians set
out on the grassy side of the road en
route to their destinations – but when
they encounter a wet patch of grass
or muddy section, they step onto the
pavement to continue their journeys.
The situation weighs heavily on the
minds of transportation officials like
Barney Bennette, transportation
planning manager at the Florida
Department of Transportation’s
District 2, who is determined to turn
around the unsettling statistic ranking
Florida highest in the country for
pedestrian fatalities.
“When we go out and look at projects,
there’s been any number of occasions
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where the pedestrians or bicyclists are
in the road or immediately adjacent to
the travel lane on the shoulder. That’s
quite common on most of these
projects,” said Bennette, noting how
speed limits in these sections range
from 25 mph on residential streets to
65 mph on principal arterial roads.
TAKING ACTION
In 2012, FDOT’s District 2 awarded
Ayres Associates a five-year contract
to provide design engineering
services for various trail and sidewalk
enhancement projects along state
and county roads within the District.
To date, 26 task orders have been
issued, some in urban areas and
others in remote, rural sections of the
district, but all based on need and all
presenting a unique set of challenges.
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SUWANNEE COUNTY: State Road 51, County Road 250
NASSAU COUNTY: State Road 15/U.S. Highway 1
DUVAL COUNTY: St ate Road A1A
CLAY COUNTY: County Road 218
BRADFORD COUNTY: County Road 18
“They’re locally driven projects
where the local agency contacts us
and wants to put these in,” Bennette
said. “Every year, the counties submit
a prioritized list of projects for bike
paths and sidewalks, and that’s what
we use to select projects off of.”
when we have to get a (county)
commissioner involved,” Bennette
noted. In addition to political issues,
the project also brought technical
challenges, including a large drainage
ditch going through the project that
had to be accounted for in the design.
The first contract involved designing
a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the
south side of County Road 18 from
Southwest 80th Place to State Road
200/U.S. Highway 301 near Hampton
Lake in Bradford County. Some
residents in the lakefront community
supported the sidewalk project while
others opposed it. Those against the
sidewalk’s installation believed they
owned the land all the way up to the
pavement, “where, in reality, it’s a
road right-of-way, and that’s usually
In contrast, a similar sidewalk project
on County Road 218 from Mimosa
Avenue to east of State Road 21
(Blanding Boulevard) in nearby Clay
County had full support from the
community.
“That area was all commercial
and had a library,” Bennette said.
“(Property owners) wanted the
sidewalk in front of their businesses.”
OTHER PROJECTS HAVE INCLUDED DESIGN OF:
• A 12-foot-wide bike path and trail along the east side of the
Timucuan Trail (State Road A1A) from the Shad Creek Bridge to the
Fort George Island Trailhead in Jacksonville, Duval County.
• A 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the south side of County Road 250
from 237th Court to 235th Road in Dowling Park, Suwannee
County.
• A 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the west side of State Road 51 from
Demetree Street to Walker Avenue in Live Oak, Suwannee County.
While not all projects are complete,
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