GAINESVILLE – The City of Gainesville has been awarded nearly $800,000 to pursue the next step in a plan to provide a way for traffic – particularly truck traffic – to connect between Thompson Bridge Road and I-985 without using Green Street and passing through the congested downtown area.
The construction project under consideration would use SR60 Connector, also known as Oak Tree Drive, to connect Thompson Bridge Road to Riverside Drive. (Click here for more detail about that project as discussed at an April city council work session.)
The city council will decide Tuesday whether or not to accept the funds from the State Road & Tollway Authority for the next step in the project: an engineering, utility and right-of-way study.
Accepting the SRTA grant obligates the city to provide just over $453,000 in matching funds for the study.
Councilman Sam Couvillon was concerned if accepting the money from SRTA for the study carried other obligations. “I want to know what we are voting on. If we vote on this…do we have to then move forward with it?”
“If I’m against it do I need to be against it now?” Couvillon asked. “Or can I be against it down the road?”
Mayor Danny Dunagan provided the clarification Couvillon was seeking. “All we’re voting on today is to accept the grant to do the feasibility study and design. If you don’t like it you can vote against it when we come up with the design.”
“We could stop this project anywhere…but we have to remember that the state may want their money back if we stop it, so we have to keep that in mind,” City Manager Bryan Lackey added.
Assistant Director of Public Works Chris Rotalsky explained that part of the plan being considered would eliminate the traffic light in front of the Civic Center where State Routes 11 and 60 split/merge.
Rotalsky said a new signal installed at the corner of Oak Tree Drive and Thompson Bridge Road, allowing traffic to turn onto Oak Tree and begin the approach to Riverside Drive, would also allow the possible termination of Thompson Bridge Road before it intersects Green Street.
He said ending in a cul-de-sac or other strategy would need to be studied before that decision is made as several businesses and homes line that 0.2-miles stretch of roadway.
GROWTH AT LEE GILMER CONTINUES
Airport Manager Terry Palmer told council members that Fieldale Farms wants to construct a new hangar at Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport to accommodate new, larger aircraft.
“Fieldale has been a presence at the airport since 1992 and they have had a corporate hangar; they’ve been the anchor corporation on our airport for a long time,” Palmer said.
Explaining that there was no way to modify or expand Fieldale’s existing hangar, Palmer asked council members to approve a new 20-year ground lease that would allow for construction of “at least a 100x120 (feet), up to a 120x120 (feet) corporate hangar.”
City Manager Bryan Lackey said part of the deal would allow airport maintenance to move into Fieldale’s existing hangar if council members approved construction of the new hangar.
“A good point about the hangar they (want to) build is at the end of twenty years should Fieldale decide they don’t want to be there any more then it would become our (City of Gainesville) hangar,” Lackey said. “It’s being built big enough to accommodate a Gulfstream (twin engine) type jet.”
Mayor Danny Dunagan said he received a call from Fieldale upper management telling him, “We’re going to build a hangar y’all are going to be very proud of.”
Final approval of the request will be decided Tuesday evening at the city council voting session.
