News
New Construction on US Highway 17-92 Lake Alfred
Published: Monday, March 23, 2009
Lake Alfred Construction to begin
LAKE ALFRED | Construction of the new U.S. 17-92 through downtown Lake Alfred is schedule to begin in early May and should be completed by spring 2011.
Motorists will be able to use the existing U.S. 17-92 throughout the two-year project, said Valerie Ciudad-Real, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation. There will be lane closures, but construction on the existing road will be limited to off-peak hours between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.
"It is important to get this thing going," said Fran Beach, the executive director of the Lake Alfred Chamber of Commerce. "We do need help with the traffic. It's backed up every morning and every afternoon."
Plans call for the existing U.S. 17-92, also called Lake Shore Way as it narrows to two lanes through downtown Lake Alfred, to become a northbound-only highway when the project is completed.
Two new southbound-only lanes will be constructed beginning at Rochelle Avenue and following the old CSX rail bed that runs along Buena Vista Drive, which is mostly residential.
The new southbound lanes will rejoin the existing U.S. 17-92 at Echo Street.
The highway is already four lanes on both sides of the downtown section.
Residents will have a chance to see maps and aerial photographs of the project at an April 16 open house at Lake Alfred City Hall, 120 E. Pomelo St., Ciudad-Real said.
Representatives from the construction company, the city and the Transportation department will be on hand from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to answer questions.
Kamminga and Roodvoets Inc., a Grand Rapids, Mich., construction firm with a Florida subsidiary in Tampa, won the $17.4 million contract, Ciudad-Real said.
The Lake Alfred project had met with several delays during the past decade. It was scheduled to begin in the state's 2007-08 fiscal year until the Transportation Department took it off its five-year construction plan in 2005.
The widening project got reborn after a massive Interstate 4 pileup that killed four people in the early morning of Jan. 9, 2008. Traffic bottlenecked on Lake Shore Way, causing a standstill on the downtown section for most of that day.
Similar traffic problems also happened earlier this decade when wildfires diverted traffic off I-4. U.S. 17-92 is the nearest alternative route through Polk County.
The project was further delayed last year when the Transportation Department sought new bids last year to settle a dispute over the original bids.
Beach said she hoped the new road would lead to a downtown business revival.
The current rush hour slowdowns means few motorists take the opportunity to stop at Lake Alfred businesses, she said. That should change with the smoother traffic flow along the new road.
The new southbound lanes open up an area for commercial development, she said.
"Once it's completed, we're definitely hoping to get new businesses downtown," she said.
[Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-422-6800.]
Tagged: Lake Alfred, Highway 17/92