DOT Plan Violates Own Rules: Building Proposed in Walton County Would Exceed Traffic Limits on U.S. 331.
Posted on: Thursday, 26 January 2006, 15:00 CST
By Heather Civil, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
Jan. 26--DeFUNIAK SPRINGS -- Walton County has told the state Department of Transportation that it cannot build an operations center south of the city as planned because it will add too much traffic on U.S. Highway 331.
Ironically, the county used the DOT's own traffic count formula to make the determination.
Before the county approves a development, it conducts a study to determine if the surrounding roads can support additional traffic.
The study for the DOT project concluded that the two-lane U.S. 331 will be at its traffic capacity by the time the operations center is finished.
The state has no plans to widen the section of the highway to four lanes near the complex any time soon.
County Commissioner Scott Brannon joked that this might be the time to ask the state for more lanes on U.S. 331.
He did add that the DOT is getting a firsthand look at ongoing problems on the congested highway.
"They'll have to mitigate the traffic," Brannon said.
The DOT plans to build a 15,000 square-foot office building and a 7,500 square-foot storage building 5.5 miles south of Interstate 10 in the Woodlawn community.
The DOT first proposed the $5.7-million project in late 2004.
"We've been looking forward to moving this project along," said DOT spokesman Tommie Speights.
The latest DOT traffic counts show that an average of 10,700 vehicles per day travel the stretch of U.S. 331 where the facility is to be built.
As planned, the operations center would add an average of 778 vehicle trips per day to the highway, according to the county's traffic study.
If the DOT wants to build the operations center, the agency might have to revise its current plans to accommodate the additional traffic.
County officials are scheduled to meet with DOT officials next week to discuss how the state can improve U.S. 331 at the site to meet traffic standards.
Speights said the problem stems from some confusion on the county's part, but that the issue should be cleared up soon.
"We will be meeting with Walton County next week to hopefully work it out," he said.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
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Source: Northwest Florida Daily News
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