Good morning and welcome to our Monday, April 20th MPO meeting. We are delighted that you've joined us this morning. Please join us with a prayer by Pastor Jim Harp, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Good morning. Good morning. Let's pray. Father, I'm just sitting here this morning and thanking you for this beautiful day and once again for this beautiful... a place in which you've allowed us to live and work and enjoy life. Thinking this morning, God, as Jesus was asked once, what's the greatest commandment? And he said, the greatest commandment is this, that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, with everything that you have. And the second one is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Lord, I can't think of a better way of loving our neighbors than leading and guiding and directing and interacting in such a way that that life is good. And I pray that these folks that you place in leadership for Martin County and beyond, Lord God, that you would give them wisdom and strength and courage and just to make decisions, God, that would lead to that kind of life that you would have for us. I thank you for them. I ask your blessing upon their families once again. Give them strength, Lord. Give them wisdom. And, Lord, we just pray that you will guide and direct this meeting and beyond. all those meetings behind the scenes where plans are being made and that sort of thing, that, Lord God, you would be the source of wisdom and direction. And we thank you this morning once again for this day in Jesus' name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. and would you do roll call, please? Commissioner Eileen Vargas? Present. Commissioner Sarah Hurd? Here. Commissioner Stacey Hetherington? Here. Commissioner Blake Capps? Here. Commissioner Edward Campy? Here. Commissioner Christopher Collins is excused. Commissioner Kaya Mayfield? Here. Mayor Carmine DiPaolo? Here. Commissioner Sean Reid? Here. We have a quorum. Excellent. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. I'll second. There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. Now's the time for comments from the public. Would anyone from the public like to address this? Seeing none, we'll proceed to the agenda. Agenda 8. A is a draft FY27-28 Unified Planning Work Program. Yes, this item is our two-year budget. It's federally required, and the draft is coming before you this month. Can everyone hear? Now we can. Okay. Okay. So this is a draft that's coming before you. This is the UPWP. It's the MPO's two-year budget. The final will come... before you next month for adoption. And I'll turn it over to Ricardo Vasquez, who's the principal planner of the MPO, to present this item. Ricardo Vasquez Good morning. Ricardo Vasquez Good morning. Did you get a lot of sleep this weekend? Ricardo Vasquez Why? Do I look like I didn't get sleep? Okay. So we have our fiscal year 27 to fiscal year 28 draft unified planning work program. And as Beth mentioned, this is our budget for our next two years. It outlines all of the planning studies and activities that the MPO will conduct. and is based off of the state fiscal year from July to June. Here's a little schedule of the UPWP development. So March 13th, we submitted our draft UPWP to FDOT and Federal Highway Administration for review. The review and comment period is over. We should have our comments in the GAP system, so we'll update you all at the next meeting regarding what those comments were and what we did to address them, and then... We'll submit that final UPWP on May 11th. And then on May 12th, well, we'll adopt the final UPWP on May 11th, and then we'll submit that final UPWP on May 12th to FDOT and FHWA for approval. And then July 1st, that budget becomes effective. So our tasks remain unchanged from our current UPWP. We have seven tasks, and here they're outlined for you. I won't go through them each individually, but as I mentioned earlier, they have not changed from the last UPWP. Some of the key projects that we have included in our budget or in our work program or in our two-year budget is the bicycle, pedestrian, and trails master plan update. We last did that plan back in 2016, so it is time to update that plan. And Bolivar there in the back was here back in 2016 when that plan was adopted, and he's back to update it. So thank you, Bolivar. We have our US1 Congestion Management Strategy Study, number two. As you all know, we did that study, US1 Congestion Management Strategy Study and Public Outreach, number one, which was from Joan Jefferson Way up to the Bard County, St. Lucie County line. Now we're going to conduct the second part where it takes from Joan Jefferson down to Lillian Court and analyze US1 in that area. We have our quarterly updates to our Development Review Map, which has been very popular. So as I mentioned, that will be part of the budget. And then last but not least, we have our 2050 Regional Long Range Transportation Plan. Now that all the Treasure Coast MPOs have adopted their individual LRTPs, now we work together and we develop a Regional Long Range Transportation Plan. So the entire draft UPWP was included in your agenda packet. Again, we will bring the final UPWP again here before you all in May once we address any comments that we received from FDOT and FHWA. And we are looking for approval of the draft UPWP. And I'll be happy to answer any questions. Questions for Mr. Vasquez? Is there a motion to approve the UPWP? Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on now to 8B, which is a public involvement annual report. The federally required public participation plan that the NPO has adopted, one of the requirements in that plan is to have an annual report of the NPO's public involvement. And so we bring that to you at this time every year. So Ricardo will present this item as well. So as Beth mentioned, our public involvement annual report is something we do annually. It is a way that we keep track of our public participation plan's goals and objectives and strategies. So as Beth mentioned, our public participation plan outlines how the MPO will conduct all of our public involvement for our plans, our studies, and for, in general, if we are going out into the public, the different strategies and different techniques that we can use. So in our public participation plan, we have our objectives that we have set out for ourselves and then the strategies that we use to reach those objectives. So with that, the entire annual report, of course, was included in your agenda packet. Today I'll just go over a brief little summary regarding those objectives and those strategies. So objective one was to hold regular public meetings with MPO advisory committees to obtain feedback before we come to you all in front of the MPO board. There are three strategies associated with this objective, and all three were met. And a couple of the plans that the committees and the board were able to give comments on were, of course, our annual transportation improvement program. And then the biggest document and I would say most important document that the MPO has, our 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan. Objective two was to provide equitable access to information regarding transportation decision making. There are six strategies associated with this objective and all six were met. And then here I just included some pictures of the events that we held throughout the year of 2025. In the top right, we have our visioning session for the 2050 LRTP at the Hobson Civic Center. At the bottom right, we had another visioning session out at the Peter and Julie Cummings Library in Palm City. And then in the bottom left, we did a joint workshop for the US 1 at Palm City Road proposed alternatives with the Florida Department of Transportation. Objective three was to engage the public early and often with clarity so that opportunities exist for feedback in our transportation decision-making process. There are six strategies associated with this objective, and all six were met. And again, just some events that we held. We have the Martin Cares presentation that we, or the Martin Cares program that we present at. We did that at the Moorgate Library in January. At the bottom left, we had our 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan Cost Feasible Plan open house. We did an event out in Jensen Beach during Jammin' Jensen to get the word out about the LRTP and get some surveys from the public out there. And then at the bottom right, we presented at the Business Development Board Commercial Real Estate Forum. to get input from the, well, to let the business community know what the MPO is, what we do, and then also to inform them about the LRTP and get input from the business community. Objective four was to use a variety of methods to engage the public. So six strategies are associated with this objective. All six were met. So in the top right, that's something we do on an annual basis. We do a walk to school day with a couple schools. So at the top right, we did that one with the Jenton Beach Elementary School. And then, of course, we have our NPL website where we advertise our meetings and post our agendas and post some pictures and any information that the NPL has going on. We have our social media. We have our Instagram and our Facebook page. Please follow and like. And then in the bottom right, we have our Mobility Bucks activity that we used during our 2050 LRTP development, which is always a very popular activity where it kind of shows the public the importance of prioritizing and investing the little amount of money that we have to a lot of projects that are ongoing. Objective five was to gather public feedback on the program or projects for Martin County Public Transit. So we worked closely with the Martin County Public Transit Division or the MARTI to get a list of their projects that they want to advertise in the tip. So on the top right, that is the program or projects that was advertised and our last tip that was adopted. So we worked closely with them to make sure that the part of this pop, as we call it, goes through the public involvement process. So two strategies were associated with that objective and both were met. And then last but not least, objective six is to strive to continuously improve the public participation process. This report here and this presentation today is part of that. So in our public involvement annual report, we go through, as I said, through all of our objectives and strategies to see how we did throughout the calendar year. And then we report those that progress to the MPO board. And then this also allows us or gives us an opportunity to see any room for improvement or things that we can add. So yeah, I'll be happy to answer any questions. We are looking for approval of the annual report. Questions? Is there a motion to approve the annual report? I move approval of the annual report. I'll second it. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll move on to 8C, which is Title VI and other non-discrimination policy and plan update. Yes. Federal highway requires that the MPOs review their Title VI and non-discrimination policy every year. And Bolivar Gomez will present this item and any changes that have been made to the plan since last year. Welcome back. Well thank you so much board members. Good morning everyone. All right. So as mentioned this item before you is the Title VI and other non-discrimination policy and plan. As a reminder this document is essentially the guiding document to ensure that the Martin MPO does not discriminate anyone on the grounds of race color national origin sex age, disability, religion, income, or family status during the transportation planning process. This year, staff reviewed the document and had just minor changes to the document, which I'll go ahead and show you all right now, primarily on Table 1. this table was updated to reflect the latest 2024 american community survey five-year estimates from the u.s census bureau the column on the left hand side the population five years and older that was updated to show the latest numbers also the column that says persons who speak indo-euro languages that one did have a minor increase as well so we did update that uh column as well and then all the way to the uh right hand side of Persons who speak other languages also did have an increase as well. So that column was also updated. So this section of the document was updated as well as the Title VI training log, which is reflected here on your screen. We like to keep a running log of all the training that the MPO staff has participated in that deal with Title VI training. So for the trainings that we did in 2025, a lot of them were done through webinars. Those were updated here on this table here. So those are the changes to the Title VI plan. I did also just want to mention that staff also did reach out to the Federal Highway Administration staff that oversee the Title VI program, and they didn't have any additional language to add at this point in time. So today we are asking for your all's approval to the Title VI plan update, and I'm happy to answer any questions as well. Questions for Mr. Gomez. I have one question. We're so acronym-rich in these organizations. What's LEP? So LEP stands for Limited English Proficiency, and it's essentially anyone that's their main primary language is not English. And did you say that our LEP number has increased substantially since the last one? So there was an increase in the three columns that I reflected, which I can go back to here. Yeah, the three columns here on the left, as well as the Indo-Euro languages, and then also the percent of persons who speak other languages. I believe the percentage of persons who speak Indo-Euro languages was a 0.1 increase. So I think it went from 3.0 to 3.1. So not a huge increase. So there was just minor updates to the overall percentages for the table. Thanks. You're welcome. Any further questions? Mr. Reid. Yeah, so on Agenda 8A, there's an acronym page on page 19, too. I just emailed the MPO so they could send me a digital copy. But it's cool to have this. So we have all the acronyms. OK. Do we have an action item on this? Do we have a motion? Do we have a motion, right? Yeah. I will move staff's recommendation for approval. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now we'll move on to 8D, which is Florida Department of Transportation MPO Joint Certification. Yes, in order to get federal and state transportation funds, the NPO goes through a federal audit every four years, and every year we go through an annual state audit. And part of that audit is forms that say that the state... FDOT and MPO jointly certify that we're following the federal regulations. There's also other forms that say we don't spend our federal planning funds on lobbying as well as utilizing disadvantaged enterprise businesses with some of our work. So these forms are included in your agenda packet, and staff is requesting that the board authorize the chair to sign the forms for this year. The ones in your agenda packet is from last year. I I just wanted to show you some examples of the forms, but these forms will be included in the final UPWP, which will come before you next month for final adoption for the short range transportation improvement program, which will come before you for adoption in June. And also our federal audit pack certification packet will include these forms as well. So this is just kind of a housekeeping issue to ask you all if you could please authorize the chair to sign these forms. And like I said, copies of the forms are a part of the agenda packet. on item D. Is there a motion to approve the authorization of the MPO chair or designee to execute the state certification? There is. So moved. I'll second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll now move on to 8E, which is a resolution requesting green mast arms. Yes, this is an item that's kind of come before you all for the last, I'd say, you know, like 12 or 15 years or so. And in this particular case, the projects that FDOT is working on that were MPO priorities are the intersection of US 1 and Cantor Highway, as well as the intersection improvements at the intersection of US 1 and Joan Jefferson Way. And the FDOT is asking if part of that priority, if you will, was having green paint for the mast arms at these intersections and all of the mast arms for the traffic signals in Martin County are green in the past you all have written letters about specific projects asking FDOT to include the green mast arms so with this time I thought it would be good to have a resolution stating that you all would like the green mast arms at these two intersections but also requests that all future MPO priority projects that include new mast arms or mast arm replacements that they would also be green that the FDOT would pay for the green paint because if they IF THEY DON'T, THEN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT WILL NEED TO PAY FOR THE GREEN PAINT. SO I'LL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. FDOT IS HERE AS WELL, FDOT STAFF. SO THIS IS JUST KIND OF A HOUSEKEEPING ISSUE THAT AND THEN IN THE LIST OF PROJECT PRIORITIES THAT YOU ALL ADOPTED THE DRAFT OF LAST the last meeting and will come before you for final adoption in June. You'll notice the specific projects that include mass storms. We specify that they're green mass storms. So that way, FDOT will include that in the scope of the project. Any questions about Resolution 2607? Is there a motion to approve? Move approval. There's a motion and a second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes unanimously. And next up is E, which is bridge rehabilitation for the County Road 707 Dixie Highway over the St. Lucie River. Yes, this is a discussion item, and it's an update by FDOT and their consultant about the rehabilitation of the old bridge or the Dixie Highway bridge, the drawbridge that goes over the St. Lucie River. And with that, I'll pass it over to Lance Jones of FDOT. My name is Lance Jones and I'm here. I don't think that mic is on. Yeah I don't think it's. Let's make sure that your mic is hot. Just speak real loudly too. My name is Lance Jones and I'm a design project manager with FDOT and I'm here to present the old Dixie Highway also known as the old Roosevelt Bridge. The project financial ID number is 450587-2-52-01. And the project is located in the city of Stewart in one county over the St. Lucie River. This is just a project location map. And now I will turn it over to Ronald Sanchez from HDR. Good morning. So my name is Ronald Sanchez. I'm a movable bridge engineer with HDR Consulting. I'm the engineer of record for this planned bridge rehabilitation project. So let me just go through a few details here. That's okay? I think so. Okay, thanks. So first, a little history about the old Roosevelt Bridge. So it's not on this slide because we didn't find any plans for it, but originally the bridge, it was a swing span bridge here built in 1918. In the 1960s, that was replaced with what would have been the northbound bridge. However, in 1993, the northbound bridge was removed. If you visited the site, you would have seen the remnants of the original northbound bridge on the northeast quadrant of the site. Currently, what was the southbound bridge is now a two-way, two-lane bridge. That happened in 1993. In 1996, there was a major rehabilitation of that bridge, replacing the electrical system and submarine cable, and replacing the movable span grating. In 2002 and 2006, there were fender repairs due to impacts to the fender system. And then in 2013 was the last steel painting. So you note that the last rehabilitation was in 96. We're now in 2026. About 30 years is a pretty common frequency for major rehabilitations of movable bridges. They're like tune-ups. And we're going to be going through some of the details about what we're doing this time around. This is a general summary of proposed improvements. This is really the slide from the public involvement. And I'll be going through in detail, well, not too detailed, all of the items on this slide. So I'm just going to skip past it. There are two slides of proposed improvements. This first one includes the sidewalk improvement, which if you've walked the bridge, there are these aluminum T gradings. So you can actually see. ribs that are perpendicular to the way that you're walking on the sidewalk. Those are going to be replaced with a solid aluminum plate with a friction surface on it. So that's an improvement to the walking surface on the movable span. We're also adding some maintenance access improvements. The most significant one is on the south bascule pier, just south of the movable span. Currently, you access the machinery through a manhole in the sidewalk. We're adding stairs, cantilevered off the north, what would that be, the west face of the Bastille Pier, down to a door, and that's going to aid access and also avoid the circumstance, which is there currently where... In order for maintenance to happen, they open up this hatch and they block the sidewalk. So that won't be happening anymore. They're just going to open a little door and walk around the side and be able to do their maintenance without interrupting or obstructing sidewalk traffic. They're also painting all the steel on the bridge. That's the movable span and the two steel spans on either side of that one. And there are mechanical and electrical repairs. The electrical repair is actually a complete replacement of the electrical control system. including control desk, limit switches. And any time that there's an outage in the movable span, it's like 90% of the time is the electrical system. So that should be a significant improvement in the operational robustness of the bridge. The most significant mechanical repair is the replacement of the span locks. Those are the deadbolt that when the span closes, there's a bar that crosses from one span to the other. to keep them aligned so that when a car drives over, you don't get a jump. We are doing some fender repair. None of the piling needs to be repaired, but this is really focused on the walkways and railings as more of a safety improvement for people who are using the fender to access the navigation lights. I know a grading repair here. What we're actually doing, we did notice that The sidewalk out there is fairly narrow. We noticed that bicyclists are using the sidewalk. And in one instance, I saw a bicyclist come down the road, jump up onto the sidewalk to avoid the grading on the movable span, then jump back off. So what we're doing is taking a portion of the open grid deck, actually four feet from the sidewalk in both directions and creating solid paths for bicyclists. So you can imagine it's the open grid that you see now, but it will be filled with concrete up to the top surface of the grading, providing for a more rideable surface for bicyclists. I'll pause here for a second, because you'd probably be interested in what BPAC had to say about that. They asked about striping, actually putting bicycle pavement markings on the bridge itself, and the department's position is that bicycle pavement markings should be installed as a larger project because if we just put it on the bridge, which is the one component here that's owned by the department, it would just be on the bridge and there would be discontinuity of the pavement markings, although the department is open to pavement markings being placed on the bridge at a later date. The other concern that we had was If you install these pavement markings in different phases, there will be maintainability issues of the continuity of the pavement markings. The existing bathroom in the control house is a marine burner system. And it's actually the last bathroom like this in the department's movable bridge inventory. We're installing a sanitary line connecting that toilet to the city of Stewart's pump station on the northeast quadrant of the bridge. We also had noted that there is small spalling and cracking on some portions of the deck, mostly on the south side. And it's likely this is caused by boaters who are exiting the marina, and then their boats are filled with saltwater. And as they tilt up the span, the saltwater exits the boat, lands on the bridge, and causes corrosion. The department performed a corrosion study on the deck to see how far those corrosive elements have penetrated the deck surface, determining that has not reached the steel mat. So the plan is to apply an epoxy coating to prevent further intrusion. of corrosive elements to save the deck and preserve it. Sorry. That's for me. Is that it? Oh, that was it. OK. Sorry. For some reason, I thought there was a third slide. My bad. All right. I ran up here too fast. I don't like to do this one from memory because I'm a structural engineer. And when we get to these environmental ones, I like to read it. So you'll forgive me one moment. When rehabilitating a bridge, FDOT considers all environmental aspects, including the marine environment. Standard protocols will be followed for the protection of local wildlife species. Examples of local wildlife species that are known to be present in the project area are small tooth sawfish, sea turtle, manta ray, and manatee. If required, they'll be monitoring for manatees, sea turtles, and manta rays. In 2016, there were no seagrass, coral, or essential fish habitat identified in the project area. I'd actually like to update that because I think it was the TAC that asked about the fact that the seagrass, the benthic survey had been performed so long ago. We had not, when was that, 25? 24. 24, okay. There was an update in 2024. kind of gives you an idea how long we've been working on this project. And they found no, so the impacts for this project are localized to the navigational channel. And really the only impacts that we're expecting is temp barges placed, attached to the fender system while they're doing the fender repair. So there'll be no penetration of the mud line or really shadowing effects. The reason that we're, Rather unconcerned is that at those depths, we don't expect to see seagrasses. And the 2016 and the 2024 benthic survey both corroborated that assumption. So this slide has duration and phasing of construction. You'll see two columns of colors, green and blue. Those are separated into the impacts that you'll see to traffic. So on the top squares, on the green side, you'll see that we're in that traffic configuration. We're painting the steel, filling and grading for bikes, shimming the movable span, and doing bridge tenderhouse renovations, which really are isolated to the renovations required for the electrical system replacement, control desk, things like that. That will be performed under... bridge closure with a full detour, and single leaf openings. Now, let me just cover a couple of things here. So we have how long it will take there, four to five months. The reality is that these durations will be adjusted by the contractor. And there will be ample opportunity for coordination between the county and the CEI And the contractor, once the project is let, that's May, well, you'll see that in a second, but the letting is May 8th. There will be a public liaison as a member of the staff of the CEI who will be reaching out to you all. There will be additional open houses. There will be opportunity for lots of opportunity for coordination. I'm actually currently involved in two Bascule Bridge post-design services. These are Bascule Bridges that are in construction. There's a lot of coordination that happens between stakeholders, the contractor, and the FDOT's representative, who's the CEI. What else did I want to say here? There was another thing. Oh, the single-leaf openings. So right now, the... Old Roosevelt has a 90-foot horizontal channel. If you cut that in half, because you have a single-leaf opening, and the single-leaf opening, by the way, is required because when we were filling that concrete and those paths, the bridge has to stay down for the setting of that concrete. It's also much more effective for the painting for the bridge to remain down for long periods of time because they're going to have enclosures mounted to the bridge, like imagine a tent. where they're painting the bridge. So it's difficult. Every time the bridge has to open, they have to exit. The reason we believe that will not create a significant impact to the St. Lucie River is because the FEC bridge. So I mentioned that single-leaf opening gets you down to 45 feet. The FEC railroad bridge has a 50-foot horizontal clearance. So it's a fairly similar channel opening, which is already a hard, physical. limitation to people traversing the St. Lucie River. In blue, we have traffic configuration where there will be intermittent movement. What this really means is that one lane will be closed on the bridge on off-peak times. That closure will be for the contractor to load and offload equipment. This is a fairly long bridge. They'll need a place to mobilize from. so that we're going to provide them with one lane. The other lane will be bidirectional with flaggers during these operations. Again, this is during off-peak times. We expect both of these phases to take about four to five months of time, which we'll be experiencing as an impact. That's an estimate. It obviously may change. Well, not obviously, but could change based upon the approach and methods that the contractor chooses to select. Click. Going back to my notes. Mr. Sanchez, there's a question. Mr. Hetherington. Can you go back to that last slide? I just want to be sure I understand that. So those are four and five months and an additional four months. Yes. So eight to nine months. And on the four to five months, the bridge will be completely closed to automobile traffic? Yes. And in the up position? One leaf at a time. So the boats can still go through. Okay, so boats will still be able to. It's not necessarily true that the bridge will be up the entire time. But one leaf will be operable the entire time. So boats can still pass under. That's right. Because one section will be. That's right. Oh boy, if anybody ever knows when the Stuart boat show. So we met with the organizers of the boat show recently. We pointed out to them that in the special provisions or the specifications for the contract, there are restrictions that work cannot occur during several events, one of which is the boat show. And those events were coordinated by our public involvement team with the county. during the development of the design. But our residents, my point was residents experienced that when the boat show happens and those spans are closed for long periods of time, the federal highway becomes very congested going north and south in that area. So we might want to look for some alternatives to, in addition to federal highway as well for that four to five month period. So, I mean, our current detour plan does take traffic over Roosevelt. It's the most obvious detour. There will be, I'll say that the specifics of notification can be worked out directly with the CEI and the contractor during pre-construction activities. So I think we have a slide on timeline, but I'll talk about it briefly later now so you know what to expect. So the project will let on May 8th. That means when it's released to contractors for bidding. I think there's a 60-day on this one? 30-day, that's right. So it's a 30-day ad. We're expecting someone will request an extension of that. So in one or two months, we'll get the bids. The contract will be selected. There'll be contract signing. Imagine another three months after that. So we're talking August, September, you'll actually have an executed contract. And then there'll be six to nine months of procurement time, meaning the contract is on board, but they're developing shop drawings, getting approval for materials, ordering materials. Some of the materials in the electrical system are fairly long lead time, I think eight to nine months waiting for something to be delivered. So we're into the following year. And we have been notified that off-season work is preferred. We suspect that's going to work out fine. But there isn't anything in the plans right now that enforces that. So that's something that needs to be coordinated with the contractor. Can you put that in the contract? It's highly unusual to put that kind of limitation in the contract. But can you? I cannot. The DOT perhaps can. It sounds like it's really going to be disruptive. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Yes, it will be disruptive. I mean, I don't think there's any question that taking one of the crossings for any period of time is going to be difficult. Any questions? Well. I'm just speaking for myself. Anything that we can do contractually to make sure that the bulk of the work can only be accomplished during the off-season would be much appreciated. After Easter, right? Yeah. After Easter and into the summer. After Easter. I mean, it sounds like procurement takes forever, so it should be fairly easy to schedule. construction, the work to be done at a date that's not in the height of the season. Would you get on the record, please? You have to speak into the mic. I was saying we're going to have to go through like a season because the contract estimation is coming like a year, so it's going to be a point where we have to work through the season. Yeah, so let me clarify. So what he's saying is that While these are the impact times, the actual contract duration is 380 days. I can't remember. So say a year. And that includes procurement? Yeah. But you said procurement can take up to eight months. That's correct. Let's see. Commissioner Hetherington. Can these phases, the sidewalk, stairs, and can they be done simultaneously with the painting and grading? Yeah, so the... Potentially. Potentially. But we do not typically dictate that kind of work when we don't have to because it's... How do I put this? We are typically asked not to dictate means and methods for the contractor as a designer. That would reduce the... impact time nearly in half. I think as a recommendation, at least from myself and this board, would be to encourage something in the specs of that item. Was it already bid out? I have never created a contract plan that dictated schedule for the FDOT. Was the project already bid out? No. Are the specs designed? So what if you put that into the scope and specifications? I have never done that. I've never put a specific contract schedule. In fact, when I have done it, contractors have changed it, and the FDOT allows those changes. Now, we can put in days in the special provisions, like specific events, where we say don't work during these periods because these are periods of time that are important to the stakeholders, but we have not. dictated construction schedules in the contract plans. These bring huge impacts to our community. I think it would be worth a try. Commissioner Vargas. So you can make an exception here is what I'm understanding. I mean, it's a big concern. We don't have any luxury of roadway. What type of exception are we talking about? Insofar as saying certain periods of time not to start or continue some type of work. We're talking about a boat show in this particular case. It's a very narrow corridor, as it is. And I understood what you said about the FDOT allowing the contractor to change. I think I'm giving you the impression that you have no power here, and that's not accurate. I'll give you an example. I'm currently involved in Las Olas, which is the city of Fort Lauderdale. It's a very similar circumstance where the road is owned by the city and the bridge is owned by the department because the city didn't want to take responsibility for maintenance of the bridge. So it's a very similar circumstance. And they have recently asked for a four-month delay to move the, to get the work out of season. And that was approved, and the DOT ended up compensating the contractor for that. And the reason that was, could be done during construction because the construction schedule can then be negotiated directly with the contractor. That's why it was done during construction, not during our design. We understand that all of your recommendations are being noted right now. And all of this will go back to the department. And there will be a lot of discussion in the department about your desires and how to accomplish it. I cannot, right in front of you right now, make promises. I'm not able to. I'm telling you that I've never done this before, honestly. Does that mean it cannot be done? It's just that it's outside of my power currently. And I've just never seen it done before. I know what the construction people and DOT are going to tell me. as soon as I go back. Having said that, that doesn't mean that, it means I'm powerless, not that you are, and that the greatest, that noting this concern will have weight with the CEI, with the department, and with the contractor, and that that negotiation is probably best handled by me going back to the department, expressing your concerns, and getting feedback. Commissioner Vargas. Okay, so I'm trying to be practical here so we don't belabor the point. Who will be getting back with Chairman Hurd, let's say, of Martin County? We're having the discussion now. It's imminent. I don't know. Do we need a letter from them or an email to respond to, or could we just take the notes and go back to them with that? So that will come from you? Okay. Okay. So Lance is the FDOT PM. He'll be responding to the county. He'll be responding to whom? Well, we coordinate with Beth normally, but it can be someone else. I would appreciate that if you could bring in the loop our chairwoman also. Okay. It's a big concern. Okay. I'm sorry, it's hard to hear you. We can get the contact information from Beth. Yeah, absolutely. Please proceed. OK, thanks. I think you've hit on that one. Did I? I think I was just about to. Don't worry, there's not much left. I'll be out of here in a minute. All right. So this is a map of the temporary traffic control plan. It should be fairly obvious that the detour would go over US 1. In addition to the temporary traffic control plan that you just saw, there'll be advanced notification coordination with the fire and police prior to detours and closures. That will happen between the CEI liaison and those entities. And as I noted, an additional public information meeting will be held prior to construction by the CEI team. The benefits of the project are extending bridge life, keeping marine traffic flowing, and an improved facility for all users. We're going over the project schedule again. Anticipated design completion in early 2026. Anticipated construction period is fall of 2026 through spring of 2028. Those impact durations fall within that period. And estimated construction cost of $11 million. That's the end of my presentation, but of course, if you have any more questions. Questions for Mr. Sanchez? Thank you very much. Let's move on to 8G, which is the Willoughby Boulevard Extension PD&E presentation. Yes, this is a discussion item, and this was actually requested at the last board meeting. The PD&E study included a traffic report, and the last time you all heard a presentation about the Willoughby Extension, they had not finished the traffic report, but they have now. And so Vanita Saini is here. She's the project manager for EPDOT. We'll introduce this item. and EFDA and their consultant will produce an update for you of what's going on with this project. Good morning, and thank you for your time. My name is Vanita Saini. I work for the Florida Department of Transportation, and I'm the DOT PM for Willoughby Boulevard PD&E study. I'm here with the project team who will introduce themselves. I have the PD&E project manager. I've got the environmental specialist and the traffic specialist, so when they come up, they'll introduce themselves. So we are here to give you an update on the Willoughby Boulevard PD&E project, the limits ARE FROM STATE ROAD 714 MONTEREY ROAD TO US 1 FEDERAL HIGHWAY IN MARTIN COUNTY. THE PROJECT LOCATION IS WITHIN THE LIMITS OF STEWART AND MARTIN COUNTY. AND THIS MAP SHOWS THE TWO CORRIDORS THAT ARE UNDER STUDY. EACH CORRIDOR IS DIVIDED INTO SEGMENTS DEPENDING ON WHAT SEGMENT HAS A FULL NEW CONSTRUCTION AND WHAT SEGMENTS ARE RECONSTRUCTION. Corridor 1 is in green. It includes reconstruction of existing Alejambre Avenue, which is about a quarter mile. It also includes a construction of a new roadway from San Jose Street to US 1 to the north, right here. Then Corridor 2 includes construction of a new roadway from Martin County High School entrance to State Road 714 Monterey Road, which is about a quarter mile. And then it also includes reconstruction of Ray's Way from State Road 714 Monterey Road to Central Parkway, which is another quarter mile. And then it includes reconstruction of existing Central Parkway, which is about a quarter mile section. And then also constructing a new roadway from Central Parkway to US 1, which is about a half mile. And that's the section that overlaps with Corridor 1. With that, I'm going to bring Chris. and he'll go over his slides. Thank you guys for having us back here. I'm Chris Rislow. I'm with AECOM. We're the consultant for DOT on this project. I also have our subject matter experts. Domingo Noriega is our traffic lead, and Keith Standard is our environmental lead, if you have any specific questions related to those. So also, in addition to those two corridors, we are looking at the no-build alternative on this, which is exactly how it sounds. You don't build anything. But I want to go through the objectives here really quickly of this study. So the PD&E study objectives are to accommodate the projected increases in growth and travel demand in the area, improve network connectivity by introducing another north-south corridor in the area, enhance mobility by providing those alternate routes, not just for motor vehicles, but also bicyclists and pedestrians, and also to enhance safety, which includes providing alternate routes. for emergency vehicles. I want to go through the quick crash history. I think you guys have seen this before, but you can see on this heat map the clusters of crashes at the intersections. And about a quarter of all the crashes in this five-year study period, the crash data initially was done from 2019 to 2023. About a quarter of those resulted in injuries, and there were, unfortunately, four fatalities in the area. But if we drill down, I'm going to look at bike and ped. crashes because bicycle safety is a secondary need as part of the purpose and need statement, which is the official statement that you start a PD&E study with. You can see seven out of ten biker ped crashes result in injuries, which are noted here with those red icons. So our goal is to increase safety for all users, and especially for bikes and peds because they're disproportionately injured in any crash, obviously. Car versus bicycle is not a good situation to be in. But specifically, I want to drill down into some traffic analysis. We've done our traditional traffic analysis. Then we use what's called a micro simulation in a computer model called VISM. It's an acronym. I don't know what it stands for, but it's called VISM. And it's a little traffic simulator where we model a proposed project to see how vehicles move within that system. So it's a good tool for a project like this because the intent... is to expand the network and provide system wide relief in this area you see on the screen here, rather than like a single capacity project where we would widen, let's say, a four lane road to a six lane road. I'll show you a sample of how the model works here in a little bit. But there are some preliminary results that I just want to share with you guys. Overall, if you look on the left, there's a little infographic. Corridor 1 is projected to provide more relief than Corridor 2. So in the interest of everybody's time today, I'm just going to focus on some of the numbers and some of the results from Corridor 1 versus the no-build. The no-build alternative, which is still very much an option, does not provide any congestion relief. So also our analysis is focusing on the design year, which for this project is 2045. So you look on the map, on the right side, the cars in green, they indicate a projected decrease in traffic, and the cars in yellow indicate a projected increase in traffic. It does make sense. You can tell that in here some of the traffic is removed from Canter and US 1 onto Willoughby Boulevard, which is why you have a slight increase on US 1 as traffic continues north on Willoughby. So I'm going to take a look. I just want to go through, and this is kind of specific, three big intersections in the area. So we're going to look at Canter and Monterey, Canter at US-1 and Monterey at US-1. And again, because of time limitations, I'm going to show you no-build and build PM, afternoon peak comparisons of the two. So first, if you look here on your screen, we have Canter and Monterey. Any of the roadway segments shown in red indicate vehicle stacking. Now this is 2045 in the afternoon peak. And these are the results of that micro-simulation. With Corridor 1 in place, the congestion at Central and Canter, which is that next intersection north of Monterey on Canter Highway, is greatly reduced. So by reducing the congestion at this time, that southbound vehicle stacking It does increase safety. It eliminates the stacking on Central, and it doesn't block those left turns, which we've heard from some folks is an issue at our kickoff meetings last summer. Again, it's no build on the left, build on the right in 2014 afternoon. So if we go up to US-1 in Canter, you can see the traffic is more distributed between northbound Canter and northbound US-1. Some of that northbound Canter traffic went up the Willoughby, the extension of Willoughby to US-1. on the left to continue north. Overall, the expanded roadway network and reduction in stacking does reduce overall travel time through the area, which I'm going to talk about that in a few slides. I have some graphics to show you there. So it's not eliminating the traffic, but in redistributing the traffic, you have reduced delay coming through the area. You have some reduced travel times. And then if we go over to Monterey and US 1. The vehicle stacking again is reduced on eastbound Monterey because some of the traffic is shown going north on corridor 1. And overall, we also did a predictive crash analysis as part of our safety study. And we do project fewer crashes at all three intersections in the build condition. So here's this next slide. It's a little animation. This is what the model actually looks like. It's kind of cool. If anybody ever played SimCity, it's sort of like that. But you can see the no build on the left and the build on the right. So what it does is it simulates those traffic movements in the area. And you can see in the no build how it stacks up and blocks those lefts on central in the afternoon. And again, this is 2045, so we're looking, that's 19 years now, into the future. So this runs for, what is it, Domingo, four hours, I think, in the peak. So we run the model to simulate those four hours, which is why you see all that stacking. All right. Now we'll go to travel time. So the model does give you an overall travel time analysis as well. And we picked out, just to show you guys, again, 2045 PM peak, a couple of examples of that. So if we go from the terminus of Willoughby now at Monterey to Canter in US 1. So that's where we're just predict that you're driving there. The travel time to get from point A to point B is actually reduced with Corridor 1 by 36%. If we want to take, again, if you take today, you go down and take a left on, headed north, take a left on Monterey and go north on Canter versus continuing north on the extension of Willoughby to US 1, the travel time is reduced by 36%. If we take that same route and you decide not to drive up Corridor 1 in the build condition and still use Monterey and Canter, the model shows a travel time reduction still not as great as using Corridor 1, but it does reduce travel time on that same route by 24% in the PM peak. So we can expect similar results in the AM peak as well. So this is, again, just a little snippet of what we have. But what we're going to do is, in preparation for the Alternatives Public Workshop, which is scheduled for July, is have all of this documented, written, and available in a project traffic analysis report. And I know you guys, with the acronyms, it's PTAR. So if you hear anybody say PTAR, it's Project Traffic Analysis Report. So this will all be documented in there, the results of our traditional analysis and also of our model. Another thing. that I know you had requested was just a really quick look at the environmental analysis, which is ongoing. As part of any PD&E study, we have to analyze potential impacts to the environment, and our goal is always to avoid or minimize any potential impacts. So first, we'll look at wetlands and other surface waters. We'll have potential impacts to one remnant wetland within the right-of-way, which you can see on the map on your right. It's that little green circle up there towards US 1. wetland is dominated by exotic species like Malaluca trees, but any impacts to it will be mitigated. There will be no impacts to Poppleton Creek, where it's in its natural state north of the retention pond there, that's a DEP, Department of Environmental Protection pond. We won't be impacting that pond, and no other treatment ponds in the area will be impacted. We will be culverting portions of the existing canal that's directly east of the park, and that design is underway right now. Moving on to the wildlife and habitat, any impacted gopher tortoises will be relocated and right now we're doing a survey for Florida bonneted bats. There's some microphones set up in the area that we're listening for. And we also have an opportunity to relocate any state listed plants. We have a potential to maybe add some fencing or a wildlife crossing for small animals and we'll mitigate any net loss to wood stork foraging habitat. We've also initiated our coordination as required in a PD&E study. with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, so you'll hear FWC. That's the acronym for those guys. Other ongoing assessments include a noise study. We're modeling the future noise right now. Historic and archeological assessments and also going to be doing a contamination screening. We don't expect any relocations as part of the project. In other words, we don't anticipate taking any homes or businesses. that the right-of-way department at FDOT is looking at that right now, and that'll be formally determined once they're complete with their estimates. And the last thing, I want to do a special slide for Section 4F resources. Section 4F are publicly owned lands, so in this case, the park, Popleton Creek Park. Since we're staying within that existing right-of-way, which was dedicated for transportation in 2010, there will be no direct impacts or land acquisition from Popleton Creek Park. We're going to implement some landscaping or fencing to keep the road in the context of the area. And we have a very low probability of any permanent impact or change of use to the park. And I just wanted to here, those photos are Pomeroy. And that's kind of representative of what we're looking at. We're looking at this road is proposed. Should we go to a build alternative, one lane in each direction, what we will do is, like on Pomeroy, have a median in there that's landscaped. It's a lower speed. JUST TO MITIGATE ANY KIND OF VISUAL IMPACTS AND TO SHOW IT'S NOT GOING TO BE A BOULEVARD NEXT TO THE PARK. IT'S GOING TO BE SIMILAR TO POMEROY DOWN HERE. THERE WILL BE CURB AND GUTTER ON THE OUTSIDE. SO THAT'S WHAT WE HAVE. THAT'S OUR UPDATE. WE WILL HAVE AVAILABLE ALL OF THE TRAFFIC ANALYSES ONCE THOSE ARE COMPLETE AND REVIEWED AND DOCUMENTED PRIOR TO THE NEXT PUBLIC MEETING. SO ANY QUESTIONS FOR ME OR OUR SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS? COMMISSIONER CAPES. Just a point of clarification on page 181, no relocations are anticipated? Yeah, like taking homes, relocating, going through homes. So specifically like on Alhambra, that's a residential neighborhood, and we can stay within the right-of-way. Would that be under either alternative or like corridor one or two? Yeah, for either alternative, yeah. And obviously the no-build as well does not result in any relocations. Okay, thank you. So no right-of-way acquisition is required? I thought that there was a lot that was required. There will be some corner clips for turning, you know, trucks to turn and cars to turn, because along Alhambra, it's very narrow. The road is very narrow, so there might be, you know, corner clips, little triangles on either side. And that's what's being estimated right now. And maybe a little sliver along, if corridor two along Ray's Way, there would be some taken. some slivers, but not impacting any structures. Also in Corridor 2, where it comes off from, here I'll show you, this will be easier to show. You can use the mouse wheel. Yeah, I got it here. In this area, on Corridor 2, that is through the Barron Business Park as proposed down here. Does anyone see any advantages to proceeding with analyzing Corridor 2? It didn't seem to me that there were extraordinary benefits. Are you required to analyze Corridor 2 and NoBuild and Corridor 1? We are. The alternatives workshop is going to present alternatives from Corridor 2 as well as Corridor 1 as well as the NoBuild. So we are analyzing both corridors. Just in the interest of time, we're showing corridor one for your presentation. But we are analyzing corridor two, as Chris mentioned. And then I wanted to clarify in the relocations, there is no residential relocations anticipated for this project from either Corridor 1 or Corridor 2. There may be potential business property impacts near US 1, the corner of US 1 and the new Willoughby Boulevard extension. And then, like Chris mentioned, some corner clips at the crossing crossroads to put in the curb, the crosswalks, and the signals. Commissioner Mayfield. Yes, thank you. Obviously, option one makes more sense, but I think quarter two was brought up, and I'm also slightly concerned about going right through a residential neighborhood. That will obviously change the flavor of the neighborhood very much so. Um, so I think that's why I still have an interest in quarter two, but yes, quarter one makes more sense logically. Commissioner caps. Yeah. Uh, kind of goes along with what commissioner Mayfield, uh, mentioned quarter two seems to have less impact to residential development. Is that, is that true in quarter one? Yeah, there, there wouldn't be any of those corner clips or right away acquisition along Alhambra and Obviously, they wouldn't have a road connecting between Monterey Road and US 1 through there. Because it is a residential road, it is a relatively low volume road. But we're looking at certain things like maybe a mini roundabout. We have the design speed at 30 miles per hour. We have a shared use path along one side to slow any traffic down through there. So we're looking at some speed management techniques. should corridor one be the corridor that makes it as the preferred alternative at the end of the project, which is that's all determined after the public hearing. So all of these will bring to the public meeting the Alternatives Public Workshop in July. Thank you. Commissioner Reid. Yes, I just want to say I always appreciate DOT's presentations. I personally support a no-build option. I think it affects too many residential units on Central Parkway. WHERE THE CITY DID A LOT OF ZONING CHANGES FROM COMMERCIAL TO MULTI-FAMILY. SO THAT'S WHERE I STAND. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. THANKS VERY MUCH. WE'LL NOW TAKE UP 8H, WHICH IS A STATE ROAD 710 PROJECTS UPDATE. YES, WE HAVE THE STATE ROAD 710 WIDENING PROJECT MANAGER ROB LOPEZ HERE TO GIVE YOU ALL AN UPDATE ON THAT PROJECT. Hello, my name's Rob Lopez. Do you have the presentation ready? I don't recall seeing one. Send to us. You sent it to me? No, I sent it to Kathy. Did you send it to them? No, okay. Okay, no problem. Let me see how... Do you want to do this then? You can open the website. You open the website because really there wasn't too much new to discuss yet. It was mostly just to give everyone a quick refresh of where we were at and give everyone a chance to ask any questions. So if you want to open the website real quick, I can... If you can, that's fine too, yeah. While you're waiting for that, the sheriff was out in Indiantown, I believe this weekend, doing a safety presentation, education, speed booth in Indiantown. with all of his deputies in Post Park, I believe. So, okay. I guess here we got a quick screen up. Again, just to give you a quick summary of the corridor. Again, we have actually in the past, this was broken into four segments. I think now you can see we have the project broken into five segments. right now starting at, and I'll just take you through each segment and kind of some of the dates and everything that we have there. Starting at the top, we have what's often called the Dash 3 project, which is primarily to widen State Road 710 from Southeast 126th to the Okeechobee County line, which will also include realignment of County Road 714 to Southwest 126th and that is currently scheduled to let in the summer of 2029 we are still finalizing the right-of-way requirements for that that segment the biggest challenge we have with uh with that segment and also with the next segment the dash two is this is where we currently have uh fpl transmission lines running parallel to our corridor and so we are currently in discussions with FPL of how much right-of-way we can procure from them and still ensure that they have enough room for future expansion of transmission lines for the future growth of that area as a whole. So that is something that we're We're trying to make sure they currently have a 100-foot exclusive easement. Whatever portion that we acquire from them will, obviously, they will have to lose their exclusive easement and subordinate to the department. So we're trying to see how much can remain in exclusive easement for FPL for future expansion. It's probably the biggest step that we're going through with that segment. The next segment, dash two, right there, similar. This is where... Again, the biggest challenge is again that easement in that area. You can see we are currently scheduled to have a construction start or the letting to take place in summer of 2030 with the construction cost of 150 million. Again, discussions with FPL are ongoing. Another item that we are currently still pending a resolution is the Florida East Coast Railway. This segment also included an overpass to go over the existing East Coast Railway. And I know with Brightline and everything, FEC has been talking about more shifting freight to some of the internal, some of the lines that run inside the state, such as this one here. And part of that plan to shift some of that freight is to create a spur connecting the CSX line to the FEC line there. And so that is, we are still waiting on what FEC's final plan of how to do that. And there is a lot of how that overpass will ultimately look will largely depend on a lot of what FEC's final plan is for that one point there. So that is an item that is still pending. before we can have a final right-of-way determined. And also final construction costs, the cost 150 million that you see right there is kind of assuming the worst case scenario that FEC will build, will go forward with all of these plans that they've been sharing with us. So if some of those get deferred for a later date, that 150 million will probably decrease by around 20 million or so. I'm kind of moving through this corridor. When you get to the Spring Haven Avenue, that's where the FPL power lines end. And that's where a lot of the project gets a little bit simpler. And that takes us to what used to be the Dash 1 portion of the project. We now have it broken into Dash 5 and Dash 6 right there. And the reason we have separated that into two segments is because we have heard constantly that we have to figure out a way to advance certain portions of this project. What we have labeled there, the dash 6, is the segment that we believe has the most potential for potentially being advanced to an earlier date. They are both currently scheduled for winter of 2031 for letting. But the dash 6 segment, we have identified it does not have the utility complications that we spoke about. It does not have complex agreements with the East Coast Railway or CSX. And it does not have any access management readjustments that the Dash 5 segment would also have. So we have identified that as having the best potential as something that could be advanced if funding is also advanced that could potentially take place before the Dash 2. section there. And what we have are probably more long lines with the Dash 4. The Dash 4 is the widening segment within Indian Town. The right-of-way required for that segment is very minimal. The right-of-way would only be needed for potential pond locations that we would need. I can show you some of the locations we're thinking about for the pond if anyone's interested. but again, since the dash four also similar to the dash six is fairly simple, not simple, but has less complications in terms of utility and railway agreements and impacts to the property owners is currently scheduled for 2029 with construction cost of 17 million. But again, you know we've heard that there are. Fatalities taking place every day, not every day, but on a high frequency out there. And something needs to be also done in the short term and midterm. We recently had an outreach event where we provided a little bit educational outreach. These are the flyers. I think we have any extra we can hand them out. We're handing them out on site to a lot of the residents this weekend to let people know a lot of the improvements we've been already doing out there. You see on the side there recently completed enhancements. Turn lanes was added at Tommy Clemens Street. Road signs have been replaced to improve visibility and safety. Sign maintenance has been completed, which included tree trimming with a lot of the overgrown that was blocking a lot of the signs. Reflective strips have been added to the stop signs. You can see an example of that. In the picture there with that reflective red bar added to a lot of the signposts, road stripings and markings have been replaced to improve visibility, and reflective pavement markings have been replaced. And you can also see a list on the right of short-term improvements that we are doing out there right now. Intersection warning signs, this kind of goes hand in hand. In addition to that, the tree trimming, a lot of the side streets out there are very difficult to notice. So we've, and a lot of the locations where intersections have railroad crossings, oftentimes for people not familiar with the area can catch them by surprise. So we have recently put these... Intersection warning signs along the corridor, I believe that is complete. And being someone who's not familiar with the area but has to drive there occasionally for different field reviews and meetings, I can tell you they've helped me quite a bit out there. So I hope they're having the same effect to other commuters passing through the area. The speed limit markings, obviously speeding is a problem out there. So as you can see in the illustration there, in addition to the speed uh the speed signs that are out there we will also be putting regulatory speed limit markings on the pavement for a lot of times drivers attention is more focused directly in front of them as opposed to the signs on the side and that sometimes do have some overbrush growing on them even though we've been doing more maintenance they are harder to see so we're hoping those pavement markings get a little bit more effect and passing ahead information signs as You all know I can kind of go back to the map here. Passing lanes were added recently. They are just east of the FEC Railway and kind of just west of Alapata Roadway, we have included. But it's a little bit, sometimes people don't realize the passing lanes are there until they're right there. And at that time, sometimes they don't have enough time to accelerate and make the maneuver. So we're hoping putting these passing ahead signs, letting people know a passing lane will be approaching within the next mile, next two miles, will assist in people having the right speed and preparing their maneuver to make that passing. Another midterm safety improvement that we're looking at right now is adding a turn lane to Spring Haven Avenue. Kind of going back to the map right here, you can't see it here, but I think you all know where Tommy Clemons is. It's just west of Spring Haven Avenue. And so similar to the improvements, we've seen a lot of positive operational improvement with Tommy Clemons. We're hoping adding a similar turn lane to Spring Haven will have a similar effect. SO THAT'S SOMETHING WE'RE LOOKING TO TRY TO ACCOMPLISH RELATIVELY QUICKLY. AND WITH THAT, I THINK I'LL OPEN IT UP TO ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE ABOUT THE CORRIDOR. QUESTIONS FROM MR. LOPEZ. COMMISSIONER BARNES. ARE WE HOLDING COMMENTS TO LAUGHTER, OR NOW WE CAN SPEAK ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR CORRIDOR? SURE, GO AHEAD. OKAY. THANK YOU. I APPRECIATE IT. JUST LAST WEEK, I WAS AT A RECENT FDOT OPEN HOUSE WHERE THEY WERE HIGHLIGHTING THE TURN LANES ON 714. I DID MEET WITH CONGRESSMAN BRIAN MAST, CHIEF OF STAFF, AND CONGRESSMAN MAST IS ON THE HOUSE TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE. AND OF COURSE, MY BIG CONCERN IS 710, 714. WHEN I DRIVE THAT, I'M A GOOD DRIVER. but I have to be a great driver out there, and I pray all the way. I was just out there, well, last Friday, and then I was there two weeks earlier for a youth event for fishing, and I wanted to go out there. So I concentrated steadily. TV station just had an expose on that corridor, wherein they also talked about a driver 100 miles an hour on 710. Yes, there are fatalities, there are injuries, there will be more. Back to my previous comment about Congressman Mast's office, I did ask, I said, where is the funding? The funding is available. There are many options for funding for the widening 710, 714. He's the chair of the FEMA funding. And the money is utilized through FEMA grants, and it can be applied for, it can be coupled with DOT funding, of course. There's building resilient infrastructure and communities. That is one grant. Hazard mitigation grant program also. There is no cap. In other words, you asked for the dollars that you need. So that is enlightening also. I also had the opportunity to speak with and have met Secretary Perdue of FDOT. and in person, spoke with him on the phone at length a couple of weeks ago. And he said, look, we're not trying to sit on our hands. A direct purchase from a willing landowner, six months, or eminent domain, 18 months to 24 months. That would be the next necessary step. We give appraised value. We don't take the property for less than its value. And we don't have to complete all of the purchases of the corridor at the same time, we can cobble them together so we can complete it in segments. This is something that is ticking. It's not going away. Secretary Perdue is willing to step up. Definitely, Congressman Brian Mast, he's there. He's waiting for us to come and ask for this money. and to get moving forward. We'll be having the same discussion a year from now. We'll have more tragedies, too. So I think it's important as county leaders that we do reach out, and of course your department, too, to say we need to have this done now. We can't afford to wait any longer. We can't. Just can't do that. Any questions for Mr. Lopez? No, I have a question. Were you able to be at, I know you had a thing out there in Indian Town, FDOT, the Sheriff's Office. I tried to get over there a number of times, but I didn't make it. Did you all have a good turnout? Oh, yes, it was a very good turnout. Cesar, maybe you can speak a little bit more of that. I can address that. Again, good morning. Cesar Martinez, Planning Environmental Administrator with FDOT. I was there on Saturday morning. Yes, we did got a good turnout. Thank you to the Sheriff's Office and Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office as well for being with us. Plenty of residents. The community actually was there for us. We understand that's the first market, farmer's market they had in the town, in the village. So they heard the news about us going there. So actually that was their main focus. So plenty of residents expressed their concerns with the safety of the road. They also expressed concerns within the village area as well. So we're going to be taking a look at that, a couple intersections within the village boundaries. You know, that will be south of the corridor we're talking about. Also, former public officials were there as well, a couple property owners within the corridor. So we share ideas as well on how to partner together. Good turnout. Very good. Thank you. Thanks for being out there. Appreciate it. Any further questions for Mr. Lopez or Mr. Martinez? Thank you. We will now move to any other comments from FDOT? Any comments from advisory committee members? Any comments from board members? Commissioner Reed. Yes, I had one, or actually two. The first one was I wanted to make a motion for reconsideration on the safe route to school grant application at the last meeting, mainly because there was two board members that weren't present. Correct. Helene Vargas in District 1 and Stacey Hetherington in District 2. Madam Chair, that's why I invited the county attorney's office. This is Sebastian. Bobrowski from the legal office. That's who the MPO is assigned to. So this board is ruled by Robert's Rules and pursuant to Robert's Rules of Order, a motion for reconsideration must be brought by the individual on the prevailing side of any motion. And number two, it must be brought during the meeting at which the motion was voted upon. So we are outside of that meeting. Obviously, that was February. So according to Robert's rules, I'm sorry that that motion lies. Could I make a motion to rescind it then? For a motion to rescind, it needs to, I think the appropriate motion today would be, I would like to put on notice a rescind that I will bring a motion because it has to be noticed. Your motion to rescind has to be properly noticed. So you can. notice that today for next meeting yes okay that that that can be done so do you need a consensus from the board majority then beth or i i believe it would just be from you commissioner just that i am notifying i'd like to put on the next uh i'd like to notice that next meeting i will be motioning to rescind um that vote okay so what i stated so far is good for the next one then yes sir okay thank you so much and then My next one was, I was going through Martin County's fiscal year 27 tentative budget, and maybe this should come back as an item as well. And I was reading at the bottom of page 202, and it says the annual cost of 18 FEC crossing licensing agreements is $49,731. And there's a bright line sealed corridor that requires quad gates at crossings, and it's going to increase that license to a yearly cost of $152,000. And then the county is going to be paying for maintenance with a life cycle of 10 years, and they estimate it as $150,000 to $300,000. I think that should come back as a discussion item because not only are taxpayers going to pay for the station. It's outside the MPU's jurisdiction. That's outside our purview. This is not part of it because it's rail crossings. That's a county commission discussion, not an MPU. Well at least it's on the record then. I'm not sure if anyone at the county noticed it. But we're not only paying for a station, we're going to pay to maintain this. And then your license agreement for the crossings are going to go from 50,000 a year to 150,000 a year. Thank you. You're welcome. COMMISSIONER BARGAS? YEAH, I THINK I WAS JUST FOLLOWING UP WITH COMMISSIONER REED. SO, MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT AT THE NEXT MEETING, YOU'RE GOING TO BRING FORTH, PLEASE SAY THAT AGAIN? AT THE, THEY'LL BE NOTICED, NEXT MEETING WILL BE NOTICED, AND ON THE MINUTES, THEY'LL SAY THAT THERE WILL BE A MOTION TO RESCIND AT THAT MEETING, AND THEN THE MOTION WILL BE BROUGHT AT THE NEXT SUBSEQUENT MEETING. YES, BECAUSE MY UNDERSTANDING IS THERE'S SOME OBJECTION to that particular work that was being done in that neighborhood. I was not here at that meeting, so definitely need to have that discussion. That will be noted in the minutes and will be on next meeting's agenda. Commissioner Hetherington. Yes. I just wanted to thank the DOT, Secretary Braun, and Mr. Lopez. We had been hearing from a number of residents along the Canter Highway corridor regarding safety concerns, lighting concerns, speed, and we had a great meeting with DOT, their team, and law enforcement and put together the DOT will be doing a roadway safety audit. that corridor and that will include dot law enforcement some input from the mpo county staff and with our objective is to identify potential road safety issues have recommendations for improvement for the entire corridor and a formal rsa report for the findings will be made. There will be public meetings. I believe those are on our county website, the public meeting. And then at the end, there will be an implementation plan put forth by DOT to address some of the safety concerns on Cantor Highway. So thank you very much to your team at DOT for addressing the residents' concerns along that Cantor Highway. That's all. Any further comments? Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, Ms. Beltran, any notes? Not at this meeting, no. Our next MPO Policy Board meeting will be May 11, 2026 at 9 a.m. We are adjourned. Thank you.