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Opposition grows over DOT project
By Kevin Wadlow
Senior Staff Writer
kwadlow@keynoter.com
Posted-Wednesday,
June 8, 2005
11:20 AM EDT
A dozen more
messaging signs to be installed
"A blight on the
natural scenery," says the Monroe County Commission.
"Huge batwings" is
how highway-beautification activist June Helbling describes it.
Other
Florida Keys residents harbor similar
feelings about the giant flashing Dynamic Message Signs that the state
Department of Transportation plans to erect along U.S. 1 from Key Largo
to Key West.
That would be the same road that DOT designated
as the
Florida Keys Scenic Highway in 2001.
"It seems to defeat
all that we attempted to accomplish with the Scenic Highway
designation," said Helbling, who chaired a local advisory committee on
the project. "That took seven years of labor."
DOT has long planned for its statewide
Intelligent Transportation System to include the Keys.
However, the appearance of a towering black
structure that rises over both lanes of U.S. 1 at mile marker 106 in
Key
Largo gave residents the first tangible look at the reality of the
project.
"It would take a
lot of dressing up to make those [signs] look pretty," said Rod Halenez,
chairman of Islamorada's Landscape Advisory Committee.
The sign at mile marker 106 marks the
southernmost boundary of a Florida City-to-Key
Largo ITS project.
A second project, costing $9.5 million, plans to
erect 12 more message signs from mile marker 86 on Plantation Key to
mile marker 5 outside of
Key West. The project was scheduled to
begin in May.
"They want to put
four [signs] just in Islamorada, one for each island, I guess," Village
Councilman Chris Sante said. "That seems a little excessive for a town
with only one main road.
"There's no alternate road to take," Sante said.
"When there's a giant traffic jam, you're stuck. All you can do is turn
around, or sit and enjoy the scenery."
Islamorada adopted a formal resolution opposing
the large message signs.
The Monroe County Commission followed May 18 with
its own unanimous resolution, finding that "the overhead sign structures
are an unsightly intrusion on the natural environment and aesthetic
features of the Keys."
The
Marathon council is planning a similar
resolution.
Flashing message signs also could slow traffic
and cause additional rear-end collisions, worried the commission.
State Rep. Ken Sorensen of
Key Largo is trying
to arrange a meeting between local officials and the DOT's executive
staff in South Florida.
"I believe DOT will be willing to negotiate on a
solution," Sorensen said Tuesday. "If there is any [state agency] that I
do not think has been dictatorial in its dealings with us, it's the DOT
in
South Florida. Their people have been reasonably willing and easy to work with."
DOT first wants to make a presentation to Keys
civic leaders in
Miami to give them a better idea of what
the system involves, Sorensen said.
"They contend it's a lot less intrusive than what
the perception here seems to be," Sorensen said. "They say it's a little
like those signs that say, 'Pennekamp
Park, turn here.'"
No date for the meeting has been scheduled.
Elements of the ITS system include:
·
Closed-circuit TV cameras providing a live
picture of road conditions.
·
Dynamic Message Signs that alert motorists to
traffic delays because of accidents, advise on hurricane evacuations,
and serve in the Amber Alert information system for child-abduction
cases.
·
Sensors that measure traffic conditions and
wireless communications that relay information to a
Traffic Management
Center in Miami.
"At most locations, ITS-related equipment will be
mounted on new upright poles similar to those used to support utilities
such as [electric] and phone lines," says a DOT information sheet on the
Middle and Lower Keys
project. |
