A meeting was held on Thursday, March 5th at 6:30 pm in the St. Sebastian Church Hall to update the neighborhood on the City of Fort Lauderdale’s current plans for the replacement of the bridge on South Ocean Drive. Commissioner Ben Sorensen as well as members of city staff were present. Below is the summary of the meeting from the city as well as some additional topics that were discussed.
South Ocean Drive Bridge – Harbour Inlet HOA Meeting
Date: March 5, 2020 Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Sebastian Church
| City Representatives | Commissioner Ben Sorenson Juan Saavedra, Sr Commission Assistant Keith Farrell, Senior Management Fellow Raymond Nazaire, Structural Engineer/ Acting Project Manager Jill Prizlee, Acting Assistant Public Works Director Engineering |
Meeting Notes
Approximately 30 residents were in attendance
City staff informed the residents on the forthcoming South Ocean Drive Bridge Replacement. Four projects boards were on display that showed bridge plan, traffic detour, photo-simulations of new bridge and typical sections.
- Final design of bridge replacement plans April 2020
- Construction Start October 2020 – 10 months duration
- Estimated Cost of $2.7M (versus $4.1M of partial closure and 20-24 months duration)
- Coordination is underway of relocation of utilities Any delay on their part may delay the project dates.
- It is a short-term inconvenience for a long-term goal.
- Fiscally responsible doing full closure.
A partial closure would take twice as long and cost $4.1M.
Residents challenged the traffic study results and the response for Fire Rescue.
The City will be considering the following concerns as we finalize the 100% plans and specifications:
- Whether an officer can be stationed in the area to keep traffic moving and speeders under control
- Whether an ambulance can be stationed close by to assist if needed.
- Where the staging area should be located.
- Debris removal to avoid potential injury during future water activities.
- Resident only signage
- May be unable to limit traffic flow to other east west connectors to the beach.
Q&A:
- Concerns with boat show traffic.
- Concerns that the existing bridge piles be cut short under canal, and not removed entirely.
- Resident challenged the traffic study results. City consultant traffic study conducted the real traffic count versus theoretical averages according to ITE manual.
- Response for Fire Rescue.
Next Steps:
We will have a follow up meeting, TBD, once we have new information, when bids/award and have construction schedule from successful contractor.
In addition to the above topics, other points of discussion included:
- It was noted that there is currently no plan to remove any of the roundabouts. Size of trucks may have to be restricted during construction.
- It was requested that reopening Marietta Drive be discussed again, though the traffic study shows that 80% of traffic leaving Harbour Inlet goes west, not east. At a previous meeting one of the consultants to the city stated that reopening the road “would not solve any problems”.
- A full assessment has been done and all emergency vehicles are able to navigate the roundabouts and access the neighborhood.
- If one lane remained open its usage would be restricted to cars and light vehicles, trucks and heavy equipment could not use this route.
- The neighborhood requested that the city look at speed signs, additional traffic flow improvements and other methods of mitigating the situation.
Once additional information is received another meeting will be scheduled for the neighborhood. Residents will be notified of the meeting and any other developments via email. If we do not have your email address please send it to harbourinlethoa@gmail.com.