Construction Setbacks Complicate Resurfacing

FDOT addresses concerns about SR211

Riverside/Avondale residents are beginning to see and feel the impacts, albeit temporary, of the construction related to Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) State Road 211 from San Juan Avenue to I-95 Resurfacing project.

FDOT has already installed pumps along Riverside Avenue/SR 211 just past Stockton Street, which are intended to lower the water table to allow construction crews to begin the first phase of resurfacing, which will take place between Stockton and Copeland streets, FDOT Community Outreach Specialist Jacob Pickering explained during a brief presentation at the Feb. 13 Historic Avondale merchants meeting at Blue Fish Restaurant and Oyster Bar.

According to Pickering, once the milling, resurfacing and reconstruction is complete along that first stretch of SR 211, construction crews will advance to the stretch of road from San Juan Avenue up to the Shoppes at Avondale, which he said would take place during the summertime. Work will take place during daytime hours in residential areas, but Pickering advised merchants that construction will take place between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the St. Johns Avenue merchant corridor between Edgewood Avenue South and Dancy Street.

“There will be no full detour of State Road 211 at any time as we resurface the roadway,” Pickering added. “There will be flaggers, one lane closed, things like that.”

Chasity Bell, an Avondale resident and current president of Historic Avondale, said that following Pickering’s presentation, she feels less apprehensive about the construction heading to the Avenue.

“I did like the fact that they’re going to work in the Shoppes at night so it’s not going to disrupt during the day, you know, folks parking, folks trying to get there,” Bell said. “As a resident, I’m a little more apprehensive.”

Bell said her concerns are mainly around the timeline.

“I’m a little more apprehensive because we know roadwork has a timeline and then it never follows that timeline,” Bell said. “So I’m a little more apprehensive, just living in Avondale, like, how long is this going to actually take? So far, they’ve done an awesome, awesome job.”

The FDOT State Road 211 from San Juan Avenue to I-95 Resurfacing project began last fall and is expected to be completed later this year, barring any unforeseen delays or circumstances.

Parking and the pedestrian ‘bulb-outs’ are two concerns for some residents, though Pickering reiterated that, for the Shoppes of Avondale, only two parking spots are slated for removal – one in each direction.

Resident Jane Reichmann expressed concerns regarding the bulb-outs following the recent rain Avondale saw.

“It used to be that the parking places dip down and the road dips down and it was kind of a little gully, if you would, just a little place where water could trickle and get to a drain,” Reichmann said. “Now they have their wonderful bulb-outs and the water won’t move. It comes to the bulb-out and stops and puddles so you can hardly cross until the water dries up right there….It’s a mess.”

Reichmann referenced the bulb-outs at Ingleside and St. Johns Avenue, near Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty Avondale and the Sherwin-Williams Paint Store.

In an e-mail dated Feb. 21, Pickering wrote, “FDOT crews are working with the contractor and designer to resolve the drainage issue. FDOT is aware and actively working on a solution.”

Watson Civil Construction Inc. is the contractor completing this $11 million project.