The Florida Department of Transportation needs to acquire more than 100 businesses and residential properties along State Road 7 in order to widen the road for street improvements and have only acquired 46, Hollywood Commissioners learned at the May 4 City Commission meeting.
The acquisitions and street widening are part of the City’s State Road 7 improvement project. The goal of the project - which also includes updating water mains and sewers and resurfacing roads – is to revitalize State Road 7 and prepare for future growth and increased traffic, according to the City’s website.
FDOT will widen State Road 7 from S.W. 25th Street to Fillmore Street to a six-lane, divided roadway; add raised landscape medians, three signalized intersections, six bus bays, 4-foot bike lanes, 6-foot sidewalks; and build 10 drainage areas during this phase of the project. But in order to do this, FDOT will need to acquire 103 properties, mainly on the east side of the road. FDOT contracted AECOM – a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, including transportation – to help with the acquisition, relocation and property management of these businesses and residential properties.
At the City Commission meeting, Brian Mekarski, associate vice president of AECOM, said the company began making offers to these 103 business owners and residents in June of last year. They have made 85 offers and acquired and relocated 46 properties – 26 businesses and 20 homeowners. AECOM hopes to make the remaining offers by July.
“Once we present the offer to the owners, our relocation staff meets with the business owner or residential displacees and informs them of their relocation benefits,” Mekarski said. “Contrary to what the myths are in the past, once you make an offer, you don’t kick them out in 30 days. FDOT gives them ample time.”
Mekarski added that all these relocations have been voluntary.
FDOT needs to have all the properties acquired by January 2013, he said, and the projected letting date, or when the contractor gets awarded the road project for construction, is July 2013.
The State Road 7 improvement project started in January 2009 with public infrastructure improvements, which included replacing the existing water mains to improve water service and installing a new sewage collection system with two sewer lift stations. The improvements are supposed to increase development potential in the area.
The State Road 7 project also includes a two-fold road improvement plan.
First, FDOT will resurface the roads from south of Stirling Road to Fillmore Street; upgrade signals to mast arms at Taft Street; and add landscaping, additional sidewalks, shoulders and bus stops. Construction will begin in Fall 2012, last 200 days and cost $2.8 million.
Second is the street widening portion, which will cost $26.6 million and take three years to complete.
For more information about the State Road 7 project, visit www.hollywoodfl.org/economic_dev.
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