Northbound State Road (S.R.) A1A traffic will be shifted onto the newly constructed southbound roadway between South 23rd and South 7th Street in Flagler Beach beginning sometime Thursday, Dec. 5. Southbound traffic will remain on South Central Avenue.
The detour will be in place until the completion of S.R. A1A between South 22nd Street and South 9th Street. The Department of Transportation still projects a completion time of “early 2020.” When the project started last January, the projected completion date was January 2020.
The department claims that access to all businesses and residences will be maintained, but evidence on the ground says otherwise: some homes’ driveways, such as they are, are impossible to use with normal cars because of the drop-down from the level of the home to the street level (see the picture below). Some businesses are experiencing similar issues.
Drivers are asked to obey the posted speed limits on both S.R. A1A and Central Avenue, and to be alert for pedestrians and bicyclists in the area.
The work is part of a the transportation department’s $22.4 million project to reconstruct State Road A1A after its portion in South Flagler Beach (and parts of the road at the north end of town) were shredded by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The construction, which will add a median and french drains through the middle of A1A’s south portion, is intended to better drain the street and protect against erosion. It is separate from a project beginning in January, and led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that will dump some 350,000 cubic yards of sand onto dunes along much of the same portion of road (plus an additional mile). The sand will be dredged from offshore and will cover the rock revetments that now line the reconstructed road.
Electronic message boards and other signage will be in place to alert drivers to the new traffic pattern.
The transportation department says construction schedules may change due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Updates are available on the project web page on www.cflroads.com.
Rick Belhumeur says
Yes, it will be nice when we have a 2 way road again. However, I feel bad for those homeowners and businesses that have lost access to their property because of the reconfiguration of the roadway and the removal of pre-existing access to their property.
Dg says
Not only will cars bottom out on these steep incline driveways – the median curbs will cause severe puddling. The construction crew was spraying water on the new sod and half of the road was covered with puddles along the length of the road. There is no drainage unless the water is several inches deep. This is going to introduce unnecessary dangerous driving conditions ( i.e. hydroplaning and splashing) during any rain let alone heavy rain. Someone needs to reconsider the viability of this road before the project advances to completion.
Richard says
I have driven the southbound lane while traveling north between 22nd and 16th many times now since it opened recently and I have made two observations. 1. How is any rain water going to flow into the center medium and finally into the French Drains when the pitch on the paved roadway is toward the sidewalk and not toward the center medium? 2. How do they expect home owners and customers of local businesses to enter into their driveways or parking lots without tearing out the entire bottom of their vehicles? I mean LOOK at the photo in this article! Chances are vehicles will bottom-out and get stuck blocking traffic. What were the road engineers think? Maybe they weren’t!
Richard says
I have to retract some of my earlier post as I drove the entire new lane (southbound) going north today and the areas of the road that are pitched to the west towards the sidewalk have ditches and french drains between the sidewalk and the southbound new road. Those were not visible earlier. Since then the crew has spread sod and uncovered the French drains so they are visible. However, the new lanes are significantly lower than the old A1A used to be. SO low that some residents with driveways facing A1A have elected NOT to have a driveway access on the A1A side. I sure hope that they have parking and garage access from the alleyway behind their homes.