FDOT completes work in time for July Fourth holiday weekend
Exactly two weeks after the District One office of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announced that the Legacy Trail overpass of Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota was open for bicyclists and pedestrians, FDOT reported that the Clark Road/State Road 72 overpass would open at 9 a.m. on July 2, “so residents and visitors can enjoy [it] as the July Fourth Holiday gets underway.”
The Bee Ridge and Clark Road initiatives had an overall expense of $13 million, the release said.
An “an official ribbon-cutting ceremony [to] celebrate the Clark Road project completion” will be conducted on Thursday, July 21, the FDOT news release noted.
During the July 1 Sarasota County Commission budget workshop, Nicole Rissler, director of the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department, underscored the fact that FDOT had worked to get the Clark Road project ready for the public before the July Fourth holiday.
“With the growing popularity of the Legacy Trail and the desire to improve safety and enjoyment,” the FDOT news release pointed out, the department began construction of the overpasses in late November 2023. This “was a substantial undertaking that required the combined support of multiple entities,” the release continued. Those included Sarasota County Government, the Trust for Public Land, and the nonprofit Friends of Legacy Trail, among others, the release added.
“Future bike and pedestrian bridges are being considered to further expand the safety benefits at designated road crossings.”
County staff has discussed with the county commissioners the plans for overpasses at Bahia Vista Street, Beneva Road and Tuttle Avenue. All of those are in the design phase, Rissler of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources told the commissioners on July 1. State and federal money will pay for those initiatives, she noted.
In regard to the Tuttle Avenue overpass, the board members voted on Jan. 30, 2024 to authorize County Administrator Jonathan Lewis to execute a $440,267 contract with the Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota to design what officially will be called the Nathan Benderson Park Connector Trail, a county staff memo explained at that time.
That new segment of The Legacy Trail will run along the north side of 17th Street in Sarasota until it reaches the Honore Avenue intersection. From there, the memo added, the connector will proceed north along the eastern edge of Honore to the southern edge of Benderson Park, which is located slightly south of University Parkway.
“From Benderson Park,” the memo noted, “the trail will run easterly to the existing trail system within Nathan Benderson Park.”
The route will be approximately 1.5 miles in length, the memo added.
The FDOT news release this week explains that The Legacy Trail is an 18.5-mile, paved recreational trail that extends from Payne Park in downtown Sarasota to the Historic Venice Train Depot. “The trail follows the route used by the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad and later by CSX,” the release adds. “The right of way was purchased by Sarasota County and the Trust for Public Land in 2004 to be used for public recreational activities,” the release notes.
In a recent news release, the Trust pointed out, “In Sarasota County, the Legacy Trail and its connecting routes to other parts of the county are creating one of the more dynamic portions of the Florida Gulf Coast Trail, a program of Trust for Public Land (TPL) that aims to create a regional trail system in Southwest Florida from Naples to Tampa — with Sarasota at the center.”
In fact, that release added, “The Legacy Trail will soon be the first segment of the Florida Gulf Coast Trail to include the official Florida Gulf Coast Trail sign, featuring the community-created trail mark.”
Further, it explained, representatives of the Trust “are working with community stakeholders” not only to develop the Florida Gulf Coast Trail by expanding the Legacy Trail’s reach to Nathan Benderson Park, but also by extending the Trail “to Warm Mineral Springs (via the Legacy Trail North Port Connector), Snook Haven Park (along River Road), and counties to the north and south.”
Charles Hines of Venice, a former county commissioner who works for the Trust, noted in the release, “There’s a ton of potential in Sarasota County because of community enthusiasm for projects like this. There’s a huge opportunity to have a major environmental tourism hotspot here, especially with places like Warm Mineral Springs and Snook Haven Park,” he continued.
“We’ve seen the Legacy Trail work successfully on a recreational level and a business level, and everyone wants to expand that model. [The Trust] can come in with its expertise in parks and trail systems and support this endeavor,” Hines added.
In her July 1 comments to the County Commission, Rissler of Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources also noted that the number of users of The Legacy Trail through June had reached the 445,121 mark. “[This] may be the year that we hit a million,” she said.