So we see in this morning's PNJ an article outlining FDOT's apparently new push for something "they" think is important: creating a 6-lane road out of what will within the next year or so (finally) be a 4-lane Nine-Mile Road.
But there are a couple of issues with this....
First---how about we address the 9000 pound elephant in the room FDOT?!? Why the hell is the current project so badly over-budget and behind schedule? That is the question residents I represent want to know!! This entire weekend was brilliant, bright sunshine and no rain---yet I saw NOT ONE worker on 9-Mile road between Mobile Hwy and Exit 5 working. Why not? I mean, this project is tracking to be nearly 24 months behind schedule---residents that I represent want to know why this FDOT project is not a 24 hour a day, weekends and nights, priority for completion? I want to know this too, so I will be asking this question SPECIFICALLY at the TPO meeting we will be having this Wednesday.
Seriously. People are pissed off that an entire grocery store (Publix at 9-Mile Road) can be built in less time than it is taking a half mile of two lane road. Heck, folks are seeing quicker per mile construction over water on the Three Mile Bridge than what they are witnessing on this flat 9-Mile road project through Beulah. This agonizingly, astonishingly slow pace that is suddenly, apparently the new normal is apparently just peachy with FDOT. I'm going to ask about this SPECIFICALLY as well on Wednesday.
So with this as the backdrop---why are we even talking about making 6-lanes on this road NOW?? Who is pushing this? Did an outlandish, expensive ($74 million), and inefficient "special interest" idea get laughed out of a room full of Tallahassee deciders a few months back, and is this the "new" project this special interest group now is pushing? Gosh I hope this is not the new "we gotta have this" project because there are MUCH MORE important projects that need to come first that will have greater impact on the issues out here than talking about 6-Lanes through Beulah. I have my suspicions, more on that after I get more information from sources familiar this week in the lead up to the TPO meeting.
But in the meantime, if I might be so audacious and bold as to actually describe what is important to folks out here that actually live and drive here:
#1----FIX the interstate and exit five to 2 LANES NOW, add a dedicated turn lane on the West Bound I-10 Shoulder IMMEDIATELY from Pine Forest Road for one mile to exit 5, as currently the cars are stacking up this distance on the shoulder and some drivers needing to get off on exit 5 are actually slowing down and stopping on the freeway in feeble and frantic efforts to merge at the last minute at exit 5. This is going to lead to a catastrophe if it is not corrected IMMEDIATELY!! I Know this is a Federal Roadway---but let's get them engaged and get this done before people die!!!!!
#2. FDOT, for the love of God, MAKE YOUR CONTRACTOR FINISH THIS CURRENT 4-LANE PROJECT IN BEULAH BETWEEN EXIT 5 AND MOBILE HWY. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH THREE DAY NO WORK WEEKENDS AND LAME EXCUSES WHEN THIS PROJECT IS TRACKING 24 MONTHS BEHIND!!!
#3. Get moving on the Beulah Interchange project!! It is elementary to those that live here--even if we are not traffic specialists like you all: If you pull HALF the Beulah traffic off of 9-Mile Road north to Isaacs lane and what will eventually be our interchange there----this lightens the traffic load on the heavily-congested portion of 9-Mile Road through Beulah on 9-Mile Road in front of NFCU. Hello?!? Duh??
I am going to start to become RELENTLESS on the ridiculousness of some of what I am seeing with FDOT on this stuff. Enough is enough with the ridiculousness and fecklessness FDOT!!
18 comments:
Please add to your list of TPO issues the widening of Mobile Highway westward from Pine Forest to at least Tower Rd. Where does the traffic go when you add a new interchange that ends up on Beulah Rd going South past Nine Mile Rd and ending up on Mobile Highway with all the new construction in this area. Follow the development money and the answers will become abundantly clear.
Concerned: You may be on to something. FDOT will begin designing a major resurfacing and safety enhancement project early in 2021 for Mobile Hwy. Instead of spending any effort now on "pie in the sky" maybe 6-lane projects through Beulah on 9-Mile Road (Where they cannot apparently compel their contractor to finish the current project to make 4-lanes that is tracking to be 24 months behind schedule on completion)---perhaps they should re-consider their initial analysis concluding Mobile Hwy from Blue Angel to Mobile Hwy does not "rate" four lanes? Then, instead of pissing Beulah people off with visions of another endless 5-year project on 9-mile road--they could be viewed positively by folks for proactively trying to do planning that is intelligent and makes sense when looking at all the growth and traffic pattern changes up and down Mobile Hwy? I like where you are going with this, I'll bring it up Wednesday as well.
Jeff,
You have got to be pulling your hair out!! As one of your constituants, I feel for you! Stay after them!!!
Jim Jolliff
Patrick Lane
Beaulah
Excellent points noted here. I am happy to know that I am
not the only one thinking the construction work is a side burner project. As if the project is worked on when there is time in the contractor’s schedule.
This construction delay issue extends well beyond Beulah - all the way East on 9 Mile. Sad to say that folks are surprised to see construction workers on-site, as this is not the norm.
Two years late should require a partial refund (for the mere inconvenience) to the taxpayer.
Everything you have said needs to be done. Also Blue angel from pineforest to us 98 needs four lanes. We are exploding at the seams and it is high time we get ahead of this situation. This also includes the county roads. Case in point 8 mile creek road and Klondike road, these are used as cut throughs and need to be addressed with shoulders and drainage. Other issues are the permitting of the utility contractors, government and private. The tax payers are left with the burden of paying to have the utilities relocated for road widening via higher rates. I cannot believe we don’t have the brain power in this county to project future problem areas and have them address it before it becomes a problem. Meaning people actually need to do their jobs they were hired to do. One more thing and I’m out. I don’t care what political party any elected county official belongs to. It only takes common sense to know what needs to be done in the county.
I must say, I agree with most of what you are saying. Turning Nine Mile Road into six lanes is a terrible idea. Do we want a super highway through the middle of Beulah? I don't think so. With three lanes, cars will want to 70 mph or faster. Speed limits really don't do much to slow traffic down - road design is what matters most. What we need to do is work on increasing our network of roads, starting with the new Beulah interchange on I-10. I would also agree that a flyover on the Eastern end of Frank Reeder(though likely really expensive) would relieve a lot of traffic from Navy Federal and take pressure off Nine Mile Road.
Is nine mile the road you all voted to give State control to and put the road on the Perdido sandbar in county control with the swap Underhill pushed? The state will look at this as a regional east/ west corridor. Isn't that what you voted to do?
never mind..It was Beulah road https://weartv.com/news/local/escambia-county-moves-forward-with-major-road-swap-with-the-state
http://www.northescambia.com/2020/09/fdot-virtual-update-nine-mile-road-study-from-pine-forest-to-mobile-highway
Why aren't holding the contractor accountable for being late? Blackball them. Is it Roads Inc? Name the contractor and turn them in for fraud waste and abuse.
If it is Road inc.. On sunbiz it shows it is inactive. Look forward to more info on this blog.
What is the current reason for delays? Is it the utility companies who are laying drainage, gas, telecom, and water? Or is it the road contractor? This project is much more than just widening a road. You know a lot of private, public, and municipal departments have to play nice together to keep this on schedule. Who is causing the delays? Where are the whistle blowers when you need them?
As has been pointed out before on your blog, elections have consequences. Looking at all the campaign donations for everyone in the race, it was interesting how some liberal folks and businesses always support your opponents and namely the two third place finishers of Owens (2020) and Sindel (2016). Navy Federal Credit Union supported Owens through one their head managers, Bill Dagnall (Mr. PR from good Ole Boy Valdosta State and which means NFCU Corporate, too, was against you) went all in for Owens. What a PR failure and huge mistake. How can they expect any gravy from you for any of their dreams for OLF-8? Do what is right for the community and ignore the NFCU bullies, you owe them less than nothing. I feel sorry you have to deal with geniuses like Dagnall who support the third place low % candidates. I guess they can expect their fly over and 6 lane to disappear as it is not wanted by the locals and their do-boy, Owens, lost.
I read on your blog that Navy Fed head Admiral Cutler Dawson called you personally a few years ago to lobby for the flyover. Well, once that is cancelled, maybe he can call you back over the next 4-years, but will then, again, support your next opponent, who as history has proven, you will dispatch. You are their Huckleberry.
I am a vietnam era vet who pays attention. This is what I hear and know. The new local head guy, who is a vet, tells his friends who are Navy vets who inquire about jobs at Navy Fed, "just keep applying." Wow! Thanks shipmate for helping a fellow sailor get a job at, wait for it, NAVY FEDERAL. What a disappointment!
Hey sailor I agree with you, but Cutler ain’t the CEO anymore.
Anonymous 11:37--
I know of at least one guy who was very determined and applied over and over for multiple jobs over a nearly 10 year period and never got an interview, not even a phone call. I know of a retired professional in mortgage lending who applied there when he was laid off--this guy had a resume that was unbelievable. Not hired. I'm aware of a squared-away UWF student who actually served in the US Navy Reserves simultaneously who applied while he was in school here and never got a call back for an entry-level job. I know of another student at PSC who served 6 years in the Air Force and applied for jobs at NFCU....same story, never even got an interview. So I always wondered why this military serving Credit Union passes over candidates like these? I wonder......So yes anonymous--I'm aware of what it is you describe and it is confounding that it happens in a military town like this.
If one rewards the contractor to be late and not work it reinforces that behavior.
A strong, confident leader doesn’t direct who is hired; however, he sets the tone like, any applicant who is a college student and is in the active duty/reserves Or served, will get an interview. A weak leader, either substantively or who is lazy, will say things like”keep applying .” A man like that doesn’t want a military person around who might outwork him, or God forbid is better. The horror. For a company that claims the members ( who all derive membership from some veterans service) are the mission and who doesn’t hire military or military spouses or military kids first, has lost its way. In reality, it is a secular progressive organization, who truth be known, eschews its raison d’etre and has replaced it with raison d’Etat of the leftists/communists in America. They have lost their ethos. Such a departure from its origins portends its demise. I’d love to see their hiring information company wide and locally. Absent military figureheads in limited niche positions, I bet it’s devoid of the numbers of veterans who have applied or that you might expect. That is disgusting.
Bookam Dano. My favorite show.
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