8/20/1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

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AUG 20 191 BOOK 84 r �+ DISCUSSION OF STATE ROAD 60 - WEST OF 1-95 Commissioner Bowman felt this issue is heating up and it is time for this Commission to take a stand. In her opinion, the DOT plan to widen SR -60 with shoulder improvements, etc., is a band-aid approach to the problem. The TPC has asked the DOT to rebuild the roadbed, but it doesn't look like they have committed to that. At this rate, she felt it will take 20 years to get a 4 -lane roadway built, and she has asked Attorney Will Collins to research the legal possibility of having this Commission make us an expressway authority to enable us to go to the Florida DOT and ask them to float a revenue bond which would be paid off by the tolls on the road. She believed the public would be in favor of a toll road. Assistant County Attorney Will Collins advised that under the State classification system, a county cannot take over a road if it goes through the county and extends on into other jurisdictions. It is a state road and they maintain it etc. With respect to the County operating SR -60 as a toll road, the Statutes read that the DOT establishes the limited access and toll facilities under an intra -state system and no project may be constructed under this system unless included in the system plan adopted by an affirmative act of the Legislature. The Statutes specifically state that no governmental entity other than the DOT may acquire, construct, maintain or operate a turnpike system subsequent to the enactment of this law except upon specific authorization of the Legislature. So, if there was any attempt to do a toll road, we would have to go to the Legislature and be approved as a turnpike project, but on their system. He felt Director Davis would have more of an idea of the likelihood of that happening. Commissioner Scurlock felt the most critical decision we can forward to the DOT as a Commission is that just putting some blacktop on the road is not satisfactory and that we want the 44