Public has chance to question FDOT on SR 20 project

Palatka Daily News, August 21, 2001
By VIRGINA WISSEL

PALATKA ­ The transportation department will give a public update on the controversial plans to four-lane eight miles of State Road 20 between State Road 19 in Palatka and Rowland Avenue in Hollister at a meeting Thursday.

The Florida Department of Transportation meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in Palatka High School's Panther Den at 302 Mellon Road in Palatka. FDOT staff will be available beginning at 5 p.m. to answer individual questions. The public is invited to attend.
The FDOT is preparing the design plans to add two lanes to SR 20.

The first segment, 3.8 miles between SR 19 and the old railroad bed in Francis, will be built as an urban four-lane roadway. Two 12-foot lanes in each direction will be divided by a 22-foot raised median.

Four-foot bicycle lanes and five-foot sidewalks will be built on both sides. Traffic will access side streets or make U-turns at median crossovers provided at quarter-mile spacing.

The second segment, 4.5 miles from Francis to Rowland Avenue in Hollister, will be built as a rural four-lane roadway with two 12-foot travel lanes in each direction divided by a 40-foot grassed median. Five-foot paved shoulders will be built along the outside travel lanes and two-foot paved shoulders alongside the inside travel lanes.

A parallel bridge will be built across Rice Creek for westbound traffic. The existing bridge will be used for eastbound traffic.
The first segment, costing an estimated $11.6 million, should begin in the fall of 2002. The second segment, costing an estimated $10.5 million, will begin in fall 2003.

The purchase of the rights-of-way is under way. The first segment will take about 10 feet or more on both sides of the existing roadway. The second segment, the rural section, will use some of the right-of-way on the south side of the existing roadway.

The project has faced some opposition from environmentalists who say it will damage wetlands. West of Hollister, some people are opposed to the destruction of portions of downtown Interlachen along SR 20.

See August 21, 2001 issue of Palatka Daily News for original article.