Four phases of the Thomasville Road reconstruction project should be all wrapped up by October, according to Eric Rosenstein, senior project engineer for Greenhorne and O’Mara Inc., the Tallahassee civil engineering firm that oversaw the project.
Included in the work was the Thomasville flyover, “a steel box flyover that included Tallahassee in a very urban area,” Rosenstein said.
Phase II, which should be completed by mid-August, he said, has been nominated for the Globe Award as Urban Project of the Year by the Florida Transportation Builders Association.
“It included some pretty serious environmental issues and we had to work in a highly urbanized area and around pristine lakes like Lake Hall and Lake McBride,” he said.
The project overall “is well ahead of schedule and within budget,” Rosenstein said.
Phases III and IV are “very rural,” he said, and include sensitive wetlands. Greenhorne and O’Mara have worked hand-in-hand with Leon County Growth Management, an environmental group, during the project, Rosenstein said.
The Phase II project is a $16.5-million job with M of Tallahassee Inc., as prime contractor. Thomasville Road (also State Road 61/U.S. 319) was a two-lane road and has been converted to a six-lane divided highway. The 3.6-mile (5.7 km) project began in September of 1998 and included the realignment of Highgrove Road with Royal Oaks Drive and Bradfordville Road with Bannerman Road, turn lanes, a raised grass median, improved intersections, sidewalks and bike/pedestrian lanes.
White Construction of Chiefland was prime contractor for the four-laning of a 3.8-mile segment (6.1 km) of Thomasville Road, an $8.4-million project that consisted of constructing two new lanes with a landscape median, drainage improvements, paved shoulders and retention ponds.
C. W. Roberts Construction of Hosford, FL, was prime contractor for the $9.8-million construction of another four-lane segment of Thomasville Road. In addition to the multi-laning, the project called for intersection improvements, retention ponds and turn lanes.
The Thomasville Road project will greatly reduce traffic congestion, according to the Florida Department of Transportation, and will provide for improved future capacity.
