Old Kings Road’s rippled and ratty section south of Palm Coast Parkway will not be resurfaced this year after all. The Palm Coast City Council, in a reversal, voted to leave the resurfacing job to next year, pending the completion of a nine-month sewer main project along the road.
Last week, the council had agreed in a workshop to eliminate 12 streets from a list of 36 slated to be resurfaced in the 12 months starting after September 1, so that the repaving schedule could accommodate a 4-mile segment of Old Kings Road, from just south of the Parkway to Town Center Boulevard. The city administration and council members agree with residents’ complaints: it’s the section of road in the city that draws the only road-related complaints these days.
But at a subsequent meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Jim Landon recommended restoring the dozen streets that had been bumped off the list of scheduled repaving, and delay Old Kings Road instead.
“You really don’t want to resurface and then do utility work, we get criticized when you start that sequence,” Landon said. “We’re recommending stay within budget of the 36 streets that our evaluation says they’re the worst condition, then move forward with resurfacing that bad section of Old Kings Road as quickly as possible, after the utility work is finished, but we’ll be in the next fiscal year and in next year’s budget.”
Still, Old Kings is likely to be repaved as close to October or November 2016 as possible. The Old Kings project alone would cost $200,000. That, anyway, is the plan as set out by the council and the administration.
It’s at least five or six years before Old Kings Road will be widened to four lanes, Landon said. The design of that widening has not yet been completed, and the money nto finance a widening is not available.
The previous story on the matter is below.
May 27–Rippled, ratty Old Kings Road is getting a make-over: the 4.2-mile stretch of the two-lane road south of Palm Coast Parkway, from Kingswood Drive to Town Center Boulevard, will be resurfaced this year as part of Palm Coast’s annual repaving program.
But the inclusion of Old Kings Road, the longest project this year, means that almost a dozen other streets, including Black Alder Lane, Emerson Drive, Empire Lane and Weber Lane, will be eliminated from the resurfacing list so the city can stay within the year’s
The city had originally planned to resurface 14 miles of road, which would have accommodated some three dozen roads and streets. Budget constraints scaled that back to 11.5 miles, and $1.2 million, which meant either the city could do all originally planned resurfacing jobs without Old Kings Road, or include Old Kings Road and eliminate 11 streets. On Tuesday, the city council opted to go with the latter option, because the only complaints the administration is getting these days, when it comes to street quality, is about Old Kings Road.
“I have not had a street complaint in several years,” Mayor Jon Netts said. The main reason for that is the city’s decision more than a decade ago systematically to resurface every mile of road and street, using revenue from a sales surtax. Once that program was completed, the city adopted a more modest but still regular program of resurfacing roads every year, based on need.
Even Old Kings Road is not structurally deficient, though it drives roughly enough that, when councilman Steven Nobile gets home from riding his bike on it, he says he has to tighten the bike’s bolts. “It is more of a driver comfort versus structural issue,” City Manager Jim Landon said.
“Which is more important, Old Kings Road or Black Alder Lane. That’s the question,” Netts said, referring to the 11 streets that would be skipped over this year. “If you defer them another year, how bad are they?”
“We don’t have any of them that are that bad they couldn’t wait one additional year,” Landon said.
“That’s what we need to hear, because what you don’t want to do is create a worse problem by deferring maintenance.”
One other wrinkle: that southern portion of Old Kings Road, just north of the portion that was four-laned five years ago in expectation of Walmart’s arrival there, is also due to be four-laned. The design of the widening is 60 percent complete, Landon said, and the project itself can be under way within 12 months. But that would depend on a sudden burst of development along the road. Any road widening would be financed with tax revenue from adjacent property owners. Resurfacing now only for the road to be widened in the next few years might be a waste.
“I’m not seeing any indicators that there’s going to be precipitous development there that’s going to generate the funds,” Netts says.
Even if there were, the bridge at Old Kings Road and Town Center Boulevard would have to be widened first. “That would suck up most of that money, and you’d be wasting every little resurfacing dollars,” Landon said. In the event, the city will leave the resurfacing of Old Kings Road to be done last, after other scheduled streets. Just in case.
P&S Paving won the bid. A list of the streets to be resurfaced, and those that were delayed a year, is below.
Palm Coast Resurfacing program, 2015-16
| Street | Linear Feet |
|---|---|
| CARIBE COURT | 140 |
| CAROLLO COURT | 383 |
| CHERRY COURT | 558 |
| CHADWICK COURT | 587 |
| CHILHAM COURT | 539 |
| CLASSIC COURT SOUTH | 257 |
| CLINTON COURT NORTH | 1068 |
| CREE COURT | 1072 |
| FERNMILL LANE | 1413 |
| FIELDSTONE LANE | 4445 |
| OLD KINGS RD FROM TOWN CENTER BOULEVARDTO KINGSWOOD DR | 21937 |
| PEPPERCORN LANE | 1915 |
| PEPPERDINE DRIVE | 4325 |
| PICCADILLY PLACE | 695 |
| PICKERING DRIVE | 3995 |
| PRINCE PATRIC LANE | 1116 |
| PRINCESS DOLORES LANE | 2166 |
| RADCLIFFE DRIVE | 4297 |
| RENFRO LANE | 1192 |
| RENMONT COURT | 615 |
| RENN LANE | 1255 |
| RENWORTH LANE | 1257 |
| RENNWORTH LN | 2306 |
| RIDLEY LANE | 1552 |
| RIPPLET PLACE | 462 |
| RIPPLING BROOK DRIVE | 3609 |
| Total distance, in linear feet, to be resurfaced | 63,156 |
| The resurfacing of the streets below had initially been delayed a year, but will now be part of the 2015-16 resurfacing program: | |
| BLACK ALDER LN | 2699 |
| EDWIN LN | 973 |
| EMERSON DR | 3934 |
| EMPIRE LN | 1214 |
| FLAXTON LN | 1167 |
| LANGDON DR | 3237 |
| LANDSDOWNE LN | 1842 |
| SEA GARDEN PATH | 1058 |
| SMOLLETT PLACE | 957 |
| WEBER LN | 1798 |
| ZITHER CT | 757 |
| Total distance in linear feet | 19,636 |
Rick Belhumeur says
Old Kings Road between SR100 and Palm Coast Parkway has always been like a washboard since the first time I rode on it back in the early 80’s. Its quite a bit better now than it was back then, so maybe you can imagine how awful it was to travel on that road back in the 80’s before Colbert Lane existed. I hope that after 30+ years they can finally turn it into a smooth road.
RAKA says
FINALLY, AFTER YEARS OFAPPEARING AT COUNCIL MEETINGS PLEADING FOR THE RESURFACING OF OLD KINGS ROAD SOUTH AND LISTENING TO THE DROLL REPLY OF CITY MANAGER LANDON “NO MONEY” WITH THE NODDIJG ASSENT OF THE CITY COUNCIL IT IS GOINGTO HAPPEN. HURRAY!
Sandra Reynolds says
Is there a start date? Or did I skip over that? Glad to hear of the widening, so the tailgaters can pass us slower drivers. We were pulling our camper doing the speed limit today when we were passed on a double line. The driver must have been late for work. Sure.
Long Resident says
How about a sidewalk from the turnoff to Towne Center all the way to Palm Coast Parkway?? I don’t understand how you have both a hiking/biking trail head for Graham Swamp AND a trail head for the “rails to trails” path to Colbert Lane but no bike lane or path from those trail heads to Palm Coast Parkway. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Rick Belhumeur says
I guess one more year isn’t very long compared to the 30 years I’ve been waiting already. It really doesn’t make sense to freshly pave that road before the utility project is complete. My hope is that when they do get to it, that they mill down the existing surface providing a smooth roadbed for the new asphalt.
Tilly says
Oh boy….more construction trucks on the roads. More road rage. More deaths….Yea, I love progress..Oh wait, I don’t get no money in my pocket for these horror projects, only the city government leeches. And what’s the name for the next hurricane ? I love summer’s in Palm Toast !!!!
m&m says
When the new city hall was presented by Landon it was 5 1/2 to 6 million dollars. Now it’s 10 million. They have to take that money needed for this project so they can bask in their glory. Screw the citizens they don’t count..
Pioneer Man says
It is quite silly to repave that section of Old Kings Road at this time or even next year. There are two housing developments that are now moving forward, and the builders trucks will rip up and destroy the new covering. BTW, will there ever be a Wal-Mart store there?