Some More Thoughts On East Polk Sprawlway

As noted in a previous post and recognized by transportation planners, the options for a route for a toll road through eastern Polk County are increasingly challenging because of all of the development that has been competed in recent years or has been approved but not developed yet.
This appears to be pushing most of the proposed alignments dangerously close to the Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Although there are no plans to encroach on public conservation lands directly, the proposed routes do raise a familiar question that has arisen in some of the other proposed road projects in the Kissimmee River Basin.
That is how the presence of a new high-speed road so close to the boundary will affect the ability of land managers to use prescribed fire because that involves avoiding situations in which smoke from the fires could produce unsafe conditions on these highways.
Add to that the effects of noise pollution on the visitor experience in these areas.
I recall a paddling trip on the Suwanee River many years ago that took us under Interstate 75.
It was a day’s paddle before we could no longer hear the thrum of traffic noise.
Add to that the effect on the peace and quiet rural homesteads near the highway’s possible path enjoy today and how that will surely end if any of those routes are chosen.
One proposed route runs so close to the existing road network that one could wonder whether it would be more cost-effective to simply improve those roads if the standard boilerplate goals of the project about freight mobility evacuation routes etc. etc. are what this project is really about.
Anyway, the public meeting is Wednesday beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Tom Fellows Center on North Boulevard in Davenport. It should be interesting.


Posted in Group Conservation Issues.