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| There is an upcoming project priorities public workshop online at which time the public can press the state to move the project to 4-lane Sorrento Road forward. But we need the public's help to make this happen. Will you attend and lend your voice to this effort? 5-11-2022 at 2:00 PM Online...... |
Because I have served on the Florida Alabama Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) for more than 5 years- once year as Chairman, I know all too well the issues and challenges of Sorrento Road. I have driven it many, many times over the years---going all the way back to when I got my first car in 1984.
Others know it's dangerous, too.
After my first blog post on this topic on April 18th, local news outlets investigated. In a series of published media
reports that followed-----the issues with Sorrento were spotlighted. Sorrento Road is such a dangerous roadway--it has tallied up an incredible
85 traffic collissions over the last 15 months according to the PNJ's report. Including multiple fatalities.
It is a narrow, dark road where folks speed between Perdido Key and West Pensacola/Pensacola--and sadly this roadway has seen far too many fatalities. White crosses signifying the loss of loved ones dot the side of this roadway.
Something has to get done, this has to be fixed. But why has this not happened sooner?
The state had a plan to 4-lane this roadway--as a part of a larger plan to 4-lane Perdido Key Drive, Sorrento, portions of Blue Angel Parkway and other roadways to create an alternate West to East 4-lane hurricane evacuation route out of Escambia County. but the inertia to make it happen evanesced in 2014-2015 after the departure of Assistant County Administrator Larry Newsome and the former commissioner in D2. Sorrento got lost in the death of that project and subsequently languished far down the list of TPO priorities.
Since that time, the Florida-Alabama Transportation Planning Organizations has prioritized other projects ahead of Sorrento.
But now is the time for the citizens that drive this road to make their voices heard. The TPO will be holding a series of public input sessions to receive citizen suggestions as to what the prioritization of Sorrento Road should be. This is where YOU, the citizen, comes in. We need, no, I NEED--your voice to be heard on Sorrento Road if you feel the state need to make it a higher priority than number 18 on the list. Without a higher prioritization this road will not be 4-laned.
So those that are passionate about Sorrento road can attend one or all of the following workshops and speak on the topic of Sorrento Road. Next Week's meeting will be online. Scroll to the bottom of this
page for a link to attend the meeting online, a link to the priorities list online, and a picture of this particular meeting's agenda---which has an agenda item for capturing public comment on the priorities list
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May 11, 2022 - TPO/TCC/CAC Virtual
Workshop
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June 6, 2022 - TCC meeting to present draft
FY 2024-2028 Project Priorities
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June 6, 2022 - CAC meeting to present draft
FY 2024-2028 Project Priorities
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June 8, 2022 - TPO meeting to present draft
FY 2024-2028 Project Priorities
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Public Outreach
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July 12, 2022 – Hybrid Public Workshop
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July 12, 2022 - TPO/TCC/CAC Hybrid Virtual
Workshop
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August 8, 2022 - TCC meeting to recommend
approval of FY 2024-2028 Project Priorities
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August 8, 2022 - CAC meeting to recommend
approval of FY 2024-2028 Project Priorities
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August 10, 2022 - TPO meeting approval
of FY 2024-2028 Project Priorities
wiGet all the information on all the projects, including Sorrento Road, by checking this website For a list of the non-strategic intermodal system priorities (Including Sorrento Road currently at #18) click here.
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While we wait for improvements, can we push to lower the speed limit for the 3 mile stretch of Sorrento from Blue Angel to Bauer to 45mph? 40 seconds of added travel time would no doubt save lives.
ReplyDeleteYou have served on the TPO for more than 5 years and even as the chairman but haven't voiced any concerns until now when the road fell in your district. Do you represent all of the county or just your little portion?
ReplyDeleteWhen Doug got elected, he went to Tallahassee before he was even sworn in to storm around and let people know that he was going to kill the four-laning project. Lawmakers were calling the County and asking "who is this Underhill guy?" There started his absurd and failed tenure as the most inept and destructive commissioner in the history of Escambia County. And that's saying something.
ReplyDeleteThen he was on the Fourth Floor demanding meetings with staff--again, before he was sworn in--to put everybody on notice that his single most important initiative straight out of the box was killing the 4-lane project. Staff TRIED to reason with him, and tell him that if he was going to insist on killing the 4-lane on PK Drive, he should at least not throw the baby out of the bathwater and try to salvage the 4-laning of Sorrento if it were at all possible.
Of course, he wasn't having any of it, and ultimately neither was DOT, after countless people in the DOT, the TPO, and the West Regional Planning committee killed themselves on that gigantic project and the DOT awarded an enormous amount of funding for it when Gene was commissioner.
Then, to add insult to injury to the residents of D2, when Doug championed the road swap to serve his Downtown masters and Beulah developers, he lost our district around 180 million dollars that had been set aside at DOT for that 4-laning project. The moment you all made that vote, I texted him and congratulated him on losing that money for our district. He has never refuted that he lost his own district that money.
Many of those crosses would not BE on Sorrento if it weren't for Doug. I don't care that some people will think that I'm mean for stating it in those terms. Sorry if people can't handle reality, but that's a fact, Jack. That road was set to be four-laned when he came to office, and he killed it out of pride and a hunger to demonstrate his lunatic authoritarianism out of the gate. And that decision started 8 long years of not getting any state road improvements in our district because they draw straws at DOT when the D2 office calls.
And now some of his biggest supporters are the biggest howlers about Sorrento. Sorrento, Gulf Beach Highway, Navy Boulevard--all of these and perhaps more would have already been completed by now were Doug not more interested in his development PAC masters than he was the safety and lives of his own constituents and other citizens of Escambia who travel D2 roads, not to mention the military who rely on them.
And if Vicki Haines Campbell is so interested in complaining about that road, maybe she should look in the mirror at one of the biggest supporters that pushed Doug across the finish line. And her actions to gut the Perdido Chamber to bring the PKA and its out of town owners into a position of supremacy over locals. How anybody could have been foolish enough to think that starving Perdido of sufficient infrastructure was going to stop develop--who can fathom it. Now that their political love affair is long gone, perhaps she should admit the hand she had in the general neglect her political decisions have helped to occasion, not just for all of District 2, but the residents of her own neighborhood as well.
Anonymour 2:34: Yes, I was and am on the TPO and we have worked collaboratively on a number of important safety issues (Cervantes) and a massive project to "fix" the segment of Pine Forest Road between the Interstate and 9-Mile road where half the road is one lane, the other half is 2 lanes. It is a disastrous failure, that we are correcting. We've also collaborated to get the Beulah Interchange, solidly in D1, made the #1 priority. And this year we got another $9.3 Million from Tallahassee for that effort. Sorrento was largely a D2 roadway prior to the redistricting--with D1 having a small portion of the north side of it from Bauer down to Doug Ford. But I was always supportive of that project getting moved forward, it's just that the D2 commissioner did not seem to prioritize it and advocate for it effectively, and got no traction on moving it up or getting funding for it when it was in his district primarily. Now that the redistricting has happened and I have had a massively attended town hall down in that portion of the district---those folks have spoken loud and clear and want their commissioner to effectively advocate to have this road 4-laned. Most of Sorrento is now in D1, so I am doing everything I can to get this project back on track. Because yes, I'm elected by one district, but I serve all the citizens. Now, watch what happens with Sorrento next. Won't be overnight, but it will move up again.
ReplyDeleteIf it’s truly about safety, lower the speed limit until improvements can be made.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants to hear your conspiracy theories, Mel. This is a serious adult conversation and there is no room for your constant blathering.
ReplyDelete