One of the city’s busiest intersections soon could become a little less congested.
Plant City officials currently are working on a proposal to add eastbound and westbound right-turn lanes at the intersection of James L. Redman Parkway and Alexander Street.
“The intersection really gets congested during peak hours of the morning and the evening,” City Manager Greg Horwedel said.
The city is about 60% done with the planning stages. It still has to come to an agreement with property owners on James L. Redman Parkway to install an eastbound turn lane.
After the plan is completed, it will be reviewed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County, among others.
The city has no tentative start date but expects the project to take no longer than 90 days to be completed.
Originally, the project was budgeted at $1 million. But now, the estimated cost for one turn lane is about $450,000.
The idea to add turning lanes at the intersection originated about four years ago, when Park Road was expanded to four lanes. At that time, the Florida Department of Transportation gave the city a choice: It could purchase $726,000 worth of land from FDOT for the required stormwater retention ponds for the expansion; or it could find another project.
If the city chose the first option, the monies from the purchase would have gone to the central FDOT office for reallocation of other projects throughout the state and would not have been retained by the FDOT District 7.
City staff believed those funds would be better spent locally on another project acceptable to FDOT, according to a 2010 city agenda report.
Any local project also would have to benefit a state roadway, so the city set its sights on James L. Redman Parkway.
The city and FDOT entered into a Joint Participation Agreement in August 2010.
