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Parkway speed won't drop
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK © St. Petersburg Times, published April 26, 2001 The Florida Turnpike District will not lower the speed limit on the Suncoast Parkway as part of its effort to muffle the highway's noise in the Silverthorn development. "Generally speaking, there is a negative public response to enforcing a lowered speed on a brand new facility with no apparent reason," District Secretary James Ely wrote to County Commission Chairman Chris Kingsley, who had asked the district to drop the speed limit from 65 mph to 55 mph. "At this point, the Turnpike prefers to continue to work with the Silverthorn committee to resolve this issue," Ely wrote. Silverthorn residents set up a committee in late March and met with Turnpike officials to craft a solution to complaints that traffic noise from the parkway, which runs along Silverthorn's eastern edge, interrupted the daily routine of people who live closest to the parkway. After just two meetings, which included detailed reviews of the affected property, the sides appear close to a resolution. "Basically, they are coming up with a plan that involves berm work and vegetation," said Bob Mackey, the Silverthorn homeowners association member who spearheaded the push for relief. "They are working on conceptual drawings right now." If the drawings match the oral proposal, Mackey said, the committee plans to recommend approval to the association's board of directors Monday. "It's probably the best we can do, given the circumstances," he said. Initially, residents had hoped to win a 12-foot-high wall to deflect the noise. Turnpike production director Kevin Thibault told a standing-room-only crowd at a community meeting in late March that the community did not meet federal requirements for a wall, and, if it did, the wall would cut the impact by only about five decibels. A more feasible alternative, he said, was a barrier of trees and bushes. When residents noted that the district had planted scrawny trees that would take decades to mature, Thibault told them that the company hired to landscape the parkway had failed to fulfill its contract. Getting more plantings fell within his authority, he said, and there were no federal guidelines to follow. The plan now calls for adding more mature trees and berms topped with dense bushes, Mackey said. New owners of the Silverthorn golf course also have agreed to put berms on the course to lessen the noise passing over the course's vast open space, he added. "That is the way we're leaning at this point," said Joanne Hurley, spokeswoman for the Suncoast Parkway project. "It isn't a done deal yet, so I hate to say it's limited to that." If the district and Silverthorn agree, though, the project will begin as soon as possible, Hurley said. Mackey praised the turnpike officials as "very amenable" to working out a solution to the problem. He said he didn't mind that Ely decided not to reduce the speed limit, as the benefit probably would be minimal anyway. Kingsley and other commissioners said they did not plan to vigorously pursue that issue further. "I really don't think getting the speed limit cut down is going to make any difference, because those people are going to drive 70 anyway," said Commissioner Diane Rowden, who supported the request. The other promise that Mackey and his neighbors look forward to is the Turnpike District's plan to start charging additional tolls on the Suncoast beginning May 6. They think the increased cost will send many trucks and cars back to the roads they took before the $507-million parkway opened in February. "That will be a telling event as far as the amount of truck traffic that continues on the toll road," Mackey said.
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From today's Hernando Times |
