Reported by Darla Letourneau
The Lee County MPO Board meeting focused on two major issues–the annual FDOT 5-year work plan and the 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). The topics were of sufficient interest that 16 of 17 Board members were present…including all five county commissioners (something that hasn’t occurred in years).The Board elected Fort Myers Councilman Flanders as Chair, serving out the term of Councilman Leonardo who resigned in Sept. The Citizens Advisory Committee’s package of recommendations stimulated an extensive discussion about the urgent need for expanding our transportation revenues.
FDOT 5-Year Work Plan:
The MPO Board had extensive discussions about the draft FDOT 5-year work plan, expressing deep frustration with the lack of funding and the delays in moving forward on urgently needed projects. The most critical need is widening of SR 82, given the alarming rates of crashes and fatalities (21 fatalities and 1,011 crashes with 610 injuries over the past two years). The Board voted to ask FDOT to change the planned construction from concrete to asphalt and use the $20 million savings to come up with a Design/Build financing approach that would allow the roadway to be built in 4 years vs. 8 years.
Darla Letourneau made BikeWalkLee’s comments on the draft FDOT plan, and called the plan disappointing, with an overall 17% reduction in the 5th year “new funds” as compared to last year’s 5th year funding level. ·She stated that Lee County is not getting its “fair share” of state funds, primarily because SWFL is not participating in the State’s top priority transportation investments–the port system, East Coast rail investments, and SIS investments in the I-4 and I-95 corridors. This year’s FDOT work plan is one more piece of evidence that the revenues coming to Lee County from all sources are continuing to decline and is the new reality.
In terms of bike/ped projects, Letourneau expressed disappointment that the study for a shared use path between Cape Coral and Pine Island, which was approved last year for funding in FY 2020, has now been delayed another year. She also expressed disappointment that FDOT once again failed to fund the joint Lee/Collier #1 priority for the Regional Enhancement project: Old US 41 in Bonita to Collier shared use path. In total, the Lee MPO requested funding for 32 bike/ped projects and FDOT is only funding 7 of those projects (22%). Last year, 35% of the MPO’s request was funded. Of those 7 funded projects, 5 of them only received planning money–not construction money as requested. On the upside, bike/ped spending represents 7% of all transportation funds, up from 6% in last year’s work plan. So, while the overall pie is shrinking, at least bike/ped’s share of the pie is holding its own.
Given the Board’s many concerns with the draft FDOT work plan, they decided to table a vote on it until they could see a revised plan. [Note: the FDOT work plan does not require MPO approval.]