Is it the Road's Fault?

We are nearing completion of the 4-lane project for 9-Mile road in Beulah.  Some residents have noticed some issues....But overall the project is a vast improvement over where we were 5 years ago!

It's now been about a month, give or take a day or two,  since all four lanes of 9-Mile Road from Exit 5 to Beulah road have been opened up to traffic.  The project is not yet totally completed, as there are landscaping and striping and some other resurfacing activities that will be happening---but the majority of the project and the biggest positive benefit ---the 4 lanes being open---have happened.

For the most part and from the best I can tell---- the reception has been very good.  I know I love it as it definitely has made my commute easier and the traffic less significant in the morning and afternoon particularly.

--Even at 5:00 on a weekday---the traffic exiting from I-10 headed west onto exit 5 from the afternoon comute is no longer baking cars up dangerously onto the shoulder of I-10 eastward one mile back toward Pine Forest Road.  That, is a GREAT thing.

--Traffic is moving the two miles or so between exit 5 and Beulah road very fluidly in the afternoons

--Traffic going Eastbound on 9 Mile Road in the mornings from Beulah Road to exit 5 is moving very smoothly as well.

But there are some kinks some have reported to me and that I have noticed that can hopefully be worked out as we move toward completing this project:

--The timing of the signals at Heritage Oaks and Navy Federal Way are not optimized--(e.g. they apparently run all weekend on the same pattern as the weekday--even though NFCU employees, by and large, are not as big of a presence on the weekends.  One resident has asked:  "Why can't we make those signals flashing "yellow" for the 48 hours of the weekend going east and west on 9-mile when hardly any traffic is coming out of the NFCU campus;  give the outgoing cars a flashing "red" on Navy Federal Way and Heritage Oaks?  Sounds reasonable to me.

--The barrels at Beulah Road and 9 Mile create what to some motorists appears to be a view hazard or blind spot.  Four days ago, a sedan pulled out in front of a motorcycle at that very spot and there was a

9-Mile Road in Beulah Traffic Shift Today----We are Now Using Both Sides of the Road! We're Getting There!!

 

It is coming along, and this is a big step forward that constituents in Beulah will greatly appreciate!   From the project team:

"All:

Last night Roads, Inc. Of Northwest Florida shifted the westbound 9-Mile Road traffic off of the inside eastbound roadway to the outside westbound roadway between the Beulah Middle School and Navy Federal Way. This new traffic control phase places the traffic on the Segment 6 project (The Project between Beulah Middle School and I-10) onto the appropriate lanes (eastbound on the eastbound roadway and westbound on the westbound roadway).  Eastbound traffic remains in a single lane. It does not make sense to try to re-stripe the roadway, open to 2 lanes and then immediately close it back to 1-lane to complete the remaining median work at Security Place, Heritage Oaks, and Navy Federal Way.

Westbound traffic remains in 1-lane between Foxtail Loop and Navy Federal Way. This allows the contractor to have the inside lanes to complete the construction of the eastbound left turn lanes into Security Place and Heritage Oaks as well as complete the construction of the concrete traffic island at Security Place and Traffic Separator at Navy Federal Way. However, Roads,Inc. Was able to open the westbound roadway to both lanes from the beginning of the project (Beulah Middle School) to the left turn lane for Foxtail Loop since they had been able to full construct the median work between those points.  There are some minor signal issues that we are addressing. Due to the temporary nature some signal equipment is the new equipment and some is the old. As the transfer to the new is worked through we will see the compatibility issues be resolved."

What are the Reasons Given for the Delay in Completion of the 9-Mile Road 4-Lane Project?

The segment of the 9-mile road project in Beulah between exit 5 and Beulah Road is more than 24 months behind schedule and $6.5 Million over budget.  Apparently, I'm not supposed to be upset about this though---even as I see bright sunny 3-day weekends go by where no work is being done on the site....

Yesterday morning at the Florida Alabama Transportation Planning Organization Meeting I was able to ask representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation about the agonizingly slow progress on completing the 4-lane upgrade of 9-Mile Road in Beulah.

Folks out here that I represent are angry.  And that is putting it politely.

Citizens subjected to this agonizingly slow project and road intersections that are so out of level it is damaging vehicles are fed up.  They are coming to me with angry complaints--but I'm hearing now that I am "coming on too strong" by blogging about this and putting FDOT on the defensive.

My constituents don't care though.  They want answers!

They want to know what I want to know:  Why is this project so badly behind schedule and over budget?

I asked, and here are the initial answers given by FDOT representatives at the TPO in Gulf Breeze yesterday.  These FDOT folks were present and knew my questions would be coming due to media coverage of my blog post from Monday on this topic.

Bryant Paulk, of FDOT, described four major issues/changes that the contractor has been awarded on this segment of the project which have led to the completion deadline slipping.  I have requested, through the executive director of the TPO Austin Mount, to meet with the new FDOT District 3 Director as soon as possible to discuss these issues and get more specific details, and that meeting will take place sometime within the next few weeks I am told.

So here's what's going on according to FDOT yesterday---four major contract change orders, over 1000 additional contract days, have been awarded by FDOT to their contractor on this job:

1.) Change order one was for more and larger noise walls along the side of the project adjacent to Nature Trail Subdivision, at an additional cost of $400K via an addition of 110 contract completion days.

2.) Due to the increase in traffic on the corridor--the contractor was awarded a $2.3 Million Dollar change order and an additional 325 days for completion

3.) To speed up just the first portion of this segment to have the 4-lanes complete between exit 5 and NFCU way--an acceleration award to the contractor was made in the amount of $1.4 Million

4.)  Cistern Leaching over a section of the segment resulted in additional contract completion days and a $1.1 Million dollar addition to the contract.

According to Mr. Paulk--a total of 1,089 additional contract completion days have been added to the contract since it was commenced in 2016.  During the discussion, Mr. Paulk indicated that the initial completion was slated for late 2018---before the addition of the additional contract days for weather and holidays.  He stated that the project is now expected to be completed by May of 2021 and as of right now it is $6.5 Million over budget.

So in my meeting that will be scheduled soon, I will request much more information on these delays and the specifics of the change orders, and I will post what I learn here.

Look--I get it. FDOT is not happy this is over budget and behind schedule.  They want it done ASAP just as we do--just as I do.

The difference is--they are comfortably distanced away from this project unlike me and my constituents who have to navigate this nightmare multiple times daily.  And they also seem quite happy to defend the reasons why this is so badly behind and even seamlessly double-down on how these delays and cost-overages are "normal" and just "part of doing business."  

That's where our agreement ends. This project is an absolute, unmitigated disaster.  

So  I'll be asking for the information and rationale for why they feel this project and these cost overruns and delays are acceptable--because I think it is unacceptable and most of my constituents do as well.

On WCOA Radio This Morning Talking 9-Mile Road Delay....A Good Discussion

I was a guest this morning on Don Parker's Good Morning Pensacola Radio program.  The topic:  9-Mile Road and the consternation the lack of completion is causing residents out in Beulah.

I appreciated the opportunity to be on the show with Don--and for those who missed it the podcast is here

What's Driving the Push for 6-Lanes on 9-Mile Road Now When the Current Project is 2 Years Behind Schedule?

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!!

What Happened Yesterday Morning on 9-Mile Road?

A signalization malfunction led to unnecessary gridlock during the morning commute on 9-Mile Road this week.  The state's contractor has addressed and corrected the malfunction.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week there was something amiss on 9-Mile Road which was causing a backup all the way down 9-Mile Road to the west as far as Leisure Lakes RV park.

Friday morning it came to a head as folks could not even exit their subdivisions to make a right hand turn onto 9-Mile Road to head toward the interstate.



The choke point was the light at Heritage Oaks and Saltgrass.  It was improperly holding East and West-bound traffic due to a malfunctioning sensor on the smart grid software that was holding the green light north and south between Heritage Oaks and Saltgrass--even when cars were not at that light..  I notified staff and asked for immediate attention to the matter.

This condition was infuriating to drivers but the situation has been addressed as of Friday--and the lights are once again functioning properly.  From an email string resolving this malfunction from yesterday afternoon:

"For an unknown reason Gridsmart detection is activating at the side street, Saltgrass Drive, and no vehicle is present.  Operationally, Nine Mile Road and Heritage Oaks will have a red light and no one will be leaving Saltgrass Drive.  The light for Saltgrass will be green for 10 seconds.  This is an issue that does not normally occur...I have monitored for the past couple hours and it appears to be working.  I sent Gridsmart and Ingram the Diagnostic logs"

Thanks go out to the County's engineering staff and FDOT's signalization contractor for getting the situation resolved.

ABOUT THE STATE DOT's  9-MILE ROAD WIDENING PROJECT....

The section of FDOT's 9-Mile Road from I-10 to Beulah Road project was slated for completion by the end of this month--however the state has recently informed us all that unfortunately once again a completion timeframe has slipped and that now this segment from Navy Federal Way to Beulah Road will be done by "Late Summer" 2020.  I know this has been a nightmare, but I want all citizens to know we have been pushing this project, to get it done.  The county, NFCU, the state--all of us.  Pushing.  Unfortunately it is just dragging on and on and the completion date has slipped again.

But it is coming, and once complete it will GREATLY assist in the traffic flow east and west through Beulah.  And looking forward-once we complete the PD&E study for the Beulah Interchange, we will begin pressing hard for that project to get construction funding in the state's FDOT 5-year work program.  That project, once completed, will reduce East-West traffic on 9-mile road in Beulah by as much as 40%----as the Western portion of Beulah will have a closer option for accessing I-10 and thereby bypassing the NFCU campus and whatever is ultimately developed on the county's OLF 8 site.