A $14.7-million contract to design and build the permanent asphalt trail on most of the 12.4-mile, former CSX railroad corridor between Sarasota and Venice was approved by the Sarasota County Commission Tuesday.
“It’s a great moment,” said Commission Chairwoman Nora Patterson of reaching this milestone. “I think people are very excited.”
The contract was awarded to Gibbs & Register Inc. of Winter Garden, which has 413 days to complete the work. Gibbs & Register is a general contractor operating throughout Florida. Among its rails-to-trails projects are the Seminole Trail in Seminole County and the Fort Fraser Trail, a recently completed project in Polk County.
Phase two of the Sarasota County rails-to-trails project will be funded through the infrastructure surtax (penny sales tax) and general fund revenues. Funding for the utilities portion of the project is through central county water reuse rates and U.S. Highway 41 sewer force main rates.
- The contract calls for replacing or repairing or replacing six small trestles along the corridor and paving about 10.6 miles of the trail.
- Establishment of trail heads at existing parks or other county facilities including Laurel Community Center and Park, Nokomis Community Park, Oscar Scherer State Park, Patriot’s Park and the Venice Train Depot.
- A new trail connections at Potter Park off Central Sarasota Parkway and off McIntosh Road near the Central County Water Reclamation Facility.
Other work includes the installation of signals or crosswalk beacons at the U.S.Highway 41 Bypass, Colonia Lane, Laurel Road, Central Sarasota Parkway and Palmer Ranch Parkway. The sidewalk and trail crossing project at the U.S. Highway 41 Bypass, also approved by the County Commission today, will be done as part of a locally funded agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation.
As part of the construction project, a reuse water line, a sewer force main and a telecommunications conduit will be installed.
Not included in this contract is replacement of the larger Dona Bay and Roberts Bay trestles. That project is being designed under a separate contract. Public meetings about the larger trestles will be held in early 2007.
In December 2004, the county paid $11.75-million to purchase the corridor, which stretches from just over a mile south of State Road 72 (Clark Road) by Sawyer Loop Road to the southern terminus near Center Road in Venice.
Most of the rail-road tracks on the 100-foot-wide corridor were removed under the first phase of work that was completed in 2005. A hard-packed, shell surface layer that is suitable for walking or running was placed on a 12-foot-wide section of the corridor that runs through Oscar Scherer State Park.
A third and final phase that would provide landscaping, additional connections to adjacent neighborhoods and other amenities has not been funded or scheduled yet.
For more information, contact the Sarasota County Call Center at 941-861-5000 and ask about the rails-to-trails project.
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