On Monday, March 11th, the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency will hold a public meeting to discuss Phase 1 of the Northeast Gateway project which constructs a four-lane Welaunee Boulevard from Fleischmann Road to Shamrock Road in Killearn Estates.
A review of project plans shows that Phase 2 of the Northeast Gateway will connect Shamrock to Mahan Drive. The road connecting from Shamrock to Mahan is projected to be four lanes.
Originally, planners proposed a four-lane road starting at Bannerman and Velda Dairy Road and ending at Shamrock Road and Centerville Road. See map below.
The purpose of the project was to alleviate traffic congestion on Thomasville Road. That proposal was voted down after community concerns were voiced.
However, it appears the plan to relieve Thomasville traffic through Killearn Estates is still in place.
Information on the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency website states that “Welaunee Boulevard and other region-serving roads may take pressure off the scenic and protected Miccosukee and Centerville canopy roads, and potentially avoid costs for upgrades at the Thomasville Road and U.S. 90 I-10 interchanges.”
This means more traffic on Shamrock. However, there is no mention of any traffic calming strategy for Shamrock – currently a two-lane residential road.
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Components of the Northeast Gateway are listed below:
Phase 1 project elements include:
- Creates a regional road to support a new I-10 interchange
- Constructs four lane Welaunee Boulevard South (Fleischmann Road to I-10) and North ( I-10 to Shamrock Way)
- Extends two lane Shamrock Way (Centerville Road to Welaunee Boulevard)
- Creation of the 8.4 mile Welaunee Greenway, with a footbridge across I-10 to connect to the Miccosukee Greenway, creating a 17-mile trail loop
Phase 2 project elements include:
- Extends four lane Welaunee Boulevard North (Shamrock Way to Roberts Road)
- Extends two lane Shamrock Way (Welaunee Boulevard to Mahan Drive)
- Adds four additional trailheads on Miccosukee Greenway
Phase Two of the Northeast Gateway will Connect Shamrock with Mahan added by Steve Stewart on
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I have lived in the northeast for 45 years and driving for 30 years. Not being a traffic engineer I think if we could create exits off of I10 at old Bainbridge, lakeshore, miccosukee, centerville, and Baum road overpasses it would allow for many tallahassee residents avoid the secondary roads to get home and exit at their more convenient exits to get home. Any thoughts?
OK, So I’m not an engineer or city official or planner. But I have lived a long time to come to kntice a few things, so here goes:
1. City planners and officials expect Tallahassee to grow. That they are too shortsighted is proven by the busy crowded street named Capital Circle. It does not circle the city.
2. The Northeast Gateway is far too nearsighted a project to alleviate the traffic problems as the planners claim. As panned by the time it is completed it will also be too little too late if the city grows as estimated.
3. A much better workable plan would be to actually build a circle around the Capital city. Make it a 6 lane divided highway completely encircling the current developed city. The circle should have entrances and exits at each of the current major thorough fares.
4. My past experiences living in cities with leadership with savvy planning has shown me that traffic circles built out beyond current development work very well. People quickly learn that driving 4 to 6 miles outside their usual routes is faster. Cities learn that building with the future in mind is less expensive in the long run.
5. There are many examples to learn from. Tallahassee planners should scrap the Northeast Gateway plans and think of the future outside the current city developments.
I agree CharlieMac..Capital Circle was constructed as the original truck route for Tallahassee over 45 years ago, and it served it’s purpose… But due to “Small town Tallahassee’s” population explosion, exploitation by commercial real estate development; and blatant stupidity of urban planning/development city employees; we now have a mess to contend with. There is no taking back the lawlessness of “If you build it they will come”…all the get rich quick developers have ruined my hometown.
Yours is a solid idea that needs to be considered.
Cell Phones is the Problem. It’s the idiots on their Cell Phones slowing up Traffic and bunching up the Cars. You can 2 more Lanes on Thomasville road and it wont matter, the Cell Phone Talkers will just spread out and slow everyone down even more. Maybe if you write the Cell Phone users a few Tickets each time you pull them over, they might put away their Cell Phones while on Thomasville Road. Driving while Distracted Careless Driving Impeding Traffic. There is three Tickets you should be able to write.
Follow the money . . .
You know this is just another planning department pipe dream, just like reducing the number of lanes on Tennessee, or the parking garage in Myers Park, or the parking garage in midtown.
Just a way to finagle around the canopy road issue while supporting development. Just accept the fact that if you are going to approve a major development between two canopy roads, you may have to widen roads. Traffic modeling by the CRTPA would be very helpful for decision makers. And probably you will need to restrict further development in the Thomasville Rd corridor. Why is it OK to clear cut trees in an undisturbed area for a new road, but not OK to cut trees in a road corridor that is already disturbed by human development? This just doen’t make sense.
Now your points are good Phil and interesting me in this issue once again.
I add to your wisdom by bringing up the most effiecent solution to the traffic congestion issue.
Here you all go:
All the local government officials who choose to own homes in the north side can just drag their lard butts out of bed earlier – Problem Solved!!
You Are Welcome!!
Observations.
It would seem the the Thomasville Road corridor is pretty much built out. The property North of Killearn Lakes and Bradfordville is Tall Timbers and Kate Ireland owned. I don’t see Kate Ireland developing any land, ever.
If the Powerhouse group sold this Welaunee property (which by the way clear cutting so far seems to be SOP), then it is on the developer to have better planned this out. Keep the canopy – build a 2 lane northbound road 100′ to the east of the current Centerville road to get people to the north.
People who will live in the Welaunee area will likely have no need to travel west. They are going to wind up with a Publix, loads of gas stations, probably a walmart, recreation, and an I-10 interchange all of their own anyway.
Calling this a “Northeast Gateway” sounds so trendy. It is neither Northeast or a gateway. There are routes for residents and visitors into Killearn and a gateway is not needed in Killearn. Killearn has a Publix, loads of gas stations, Thomasville Road and Centerville Road and a nearby -10 interchange.
Come take a walk M-F from 4:30 to 6 in the afternoon on Shamrock. You will be surprised. A connector will screw up a nice neighborhood.
Yawn…I was more interested when past articles at least left open the juicy possibility of kick-backs/ill-gotten-gain between the Killearn HOA/City of Tallahassee/J. T. Burnett…but now…yawn…I’m just losing interest in the entire story.
I think Velda Dairy is mislabeled on that map. That road runs east there, not north/south.
No, it’s labeled correctly there, that Blue Line must be throwing you off since it is only on a part of Velda Dairy. You can see two Roads going Left, the top one is Kerry Forest and the bottom one is the rest of Velda dairy.
First you built the Fly Over to take care of Traffic, THAT didn’t work. Then you widened Thomasville Road to ease Traffic, THAT’s not working. Then you widened I-10 to help ease Traffic, that too isn’t working so NOW, you want to bring all those Cars through a Neighborhood where Kids are playing, WOW. You do know that Bradfordville Rd goes from Thomasville Road all the way to Tram Road Right? It turns into Roberts Rd then into Crump Rd then into Chairs Cross Rd then into W W Kelly Rd and at Tram Road it turns into Old Plank Rd. Just widen THAT Rd.
It seems to me that Killearn HOA should be negotiating for traffic calming devices such as a round about inside Killearn on Shamrock South by the park, a light at Centerville and Shamrock, and REPAVING roads inside Killearn that are all well past due for resurfacing. That alone would help restrict the speed limit to 30 mph and dissuade cars from cutting through the neighborhood.
Wouldn’t this be an ideal time to ask the City to provide these amenities? For once, wouldn’t it be nice if some of our tax dollars were reinvested back into Killearn, a neighborhood that has been paying its fair share for quite some time? Rather than create a mob mentality let’s try and see if there is any leadership that can negotiate?
No more traffic calming devices.