The Bartow Community Redevelopment Agency has 15 suggestions to help U.S. Highway 17 during the Florida Department of Transportation’s upcoming resurfacing project.

The $2.8 million project,
scheduled to unfold in 2014 and last until 2015, will resurface the road from Bartow Road to Main Street along the highway.

Next year the DOT will bid on the project and the construction will start the next year, CRA Director Patrick Brett told the board at a meeting Tuesday morning. Making suggestions now, he said, is not only encouraged but is also well ahead of time.

Brett notes that a Green Zone can be created along the corridor, adding that making improvements along this road can only help in that regard.

The DOT and the Polk County Transit Authority may not act on the suggestions and if not, the CRA can pay for it, if it can afford it.

“As the resurfacing is being done by the Florida Department of Transportation, they can do some improvements above that and may or may not do it. That’s where my board could come in,” Brett told commissioners.

As the board reviewed the list, CRA Chairman Alan Rayl suggested sending the city of Bartow a copy of the proposals.

The proposals the CRA decided to send were:

• Coordinate resurfacing project with the city of Bartow’s U.S. 17 water and wastewater improvements in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan for 2013-14.

• American with Disabilities Act, or ADA, improvements needed at the southwest corner of U.S. 17 and Main Street with regard to the signal mast.

• ADA improvement needed at the southwest corner of U.S. 17 and MLK Boulevard.

• Maximize the width of sidewalks on both sides of the roadway.

• Sidewalk is needed on the west side of U.S. 17 from Mann Road south to Oak Hammock Retirement Community.

• Sidewalk needed on the east side of U.S. 17 from Georgia Street to South Clear Springs Road.

• Pedestrian crosswalk design templates that display grids or artistic motifs are preferred rather than traditional parallel white lines.

• Signage needs to be improved at Main Street and U.S. 17 on the southeast side of the intersection.

• Peace River Citrus Plant needs a slow-down lane for tractor trailers that arrive from the south.

• Evaluate adding a dedicated bicycle lane on both sides as business owners at Pallet One and the Peace River Citrus Plant say employees ride bicycles to and from work.

• Add a green arrow at U.S. 17 and Georgia Street intersection as it gets backed up at 5 p.m. and sometimes drivers have to wait through two red lights to get through there.

• Noted as not being sure if it is part of an improvement, it is noted that drivers use the Sunoco gas station lot to skip the light and this has nearly caused a number of accidents. Children are unloaded at Union Academy at Wabash and U.S. 17 and people frequently run the red light. Added to that, there is an optical illusion with the light at MLK as light runners are traveling north on U.S. 17 and do not seem to notice the light at Wabash.

Staining, or stamped concrete, the centerline medians with an earth-tone color, similar to the colors used in the Gateway Monuments. The closest monument is at the intersection of U.S. 17 and Main Street.

Commissioner Dr. Timothy Brooks, who owns Bartow Animal Clinic on U.S. 17, suggested some trees or flowers on the medians to beautify the area, but Brett said who would maintain it could become an issue. The CRA, he later explained, could not maintain it; the DOT would not maintain it, either, so that suggestion will not be sent.