No N. Roosevelt pedestrian crosswalks until 2020

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Key West City Commissioners recently received the official bad news: the new pedestrian protection signal system on North Roosevelt Boulevard won’t be completed until March 2020.

Two pedestrian deaths and several accidents have occurred at the state Department of Transportation-designed (DOT) crosswalks on the boulevard since the repaving of the street was completed in 2015. City officials and Key West Police Chief Donie Lee have made urgent requests since then that more powerful signal systems be installed to alert drivers that people are crossing the busy street. It took a year for the DOT to agree but because of the lengthy state design and budgeting process, the new signal system will take from now until February 2019 to design, with construction beginning in September 2019 and finishing in March 2020.

That lengthy timeline did not sit well with commissioners, particularly Commissioner Sam Kaufman, who has been complaining about the crosswalks for the past two years.

“The first time this commission asked for this to be accomplished was in November 2015. Now you’re telling me it’s going to be another two years potentially that we’re going to have to wait for the construction to be completed,” he said, adding, “How many more people are going to be hurt in the next two years?”

Maria Perdomo, DOT project manager, said the project only received funding to proceed in November of last year. She said her team “is trying to move the project forward as much as possible” but gave no assurances that would happen.

“I can’t speak to what happened between 2015 and 2017,” she told Kaufman, who responded, “I can tell you what happened between 2015 and 2017. Nothing happened. And a lot of people got hurt.”

Kaufman also repeated his request that the crosswalk in front of the Key Plaza Shopping Center, which houses Kmart and Dollar Tree, be removed. Most of the pedestrian accidents have occurred in that crosswalk, he said, and there is a regular stoplight crossing only a few yards away at the intersection of Kennedy Drive.

“Why would you want people to cross there,” he asked, referring to the Kmart crosswalk. “Why not eliminate that crosswalk and why does it take years to do that?”

Omar Meitin, DOT traffic engineer, responded that a DOT survey of pedestrian traffic along the five North Roosevelt crosswalks last year showed the Kmart Plaza crossing was one of the busiest.

“That one crosswalk there is the heaviest use crosswalk of the five. People want to cross there, not at Kennedy Drive,” he said.

Commissioner Clayton Lopez agreed that the Kmart Plaza crossing was too dangerous even for an upgraded pedestrian signal system.

“That problem is not going to go away. If anything, it will be exacerbated,” he said. “You’ve got to move this up and you’ve got to get rid of that crosswalk.”

But the DOT engineers said their hands were tied. As a result, the planned design and construction schedule seems unlikely to change.

The five crosswalks along North Roosevelt are located near the 24 North Hotel, near Capital Bank, the Key Plaza Shopping Plaza, between 7th Street and Hilton Haven Road, and west of 3rd Street.

The new signal system will use a mast extended across both inbound and outbound lanes of North Roosevelt. The mast will have signal lights attached that will remain dark unless a pedestrian pushes the activation button. Then, motorists will see a flashing yellow light for a few seconds, followed by a steady yellow for a few more seconds to alert them they will have to stop. Then a double solid red light will follow, requiring motorists to stop at the stop line bar. The pedestrian will see a flashing walk signal with a countdown timer, allowing them to get across the road.

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