- October 13, 2024
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The Florida Department of Transportation is tentatively planning $104 million worth of projects in Flagler County in its next five-year work plan.
Because of labor and material cost increases over the last year, FDOT has only added four new projects to its current work-list held over from previous years, opting to focus on maintenance and safety improvements, FDOT Program Management Administrator Katherine Alexander-Corbin told the Flagler County Commission at a March 6 meeting.
The projects on the list were selected to support safety, capacity, preservation, bike and pedestrian, multi-modal transport and miscellaneous projects.
The new projects (see details at left) are: pavement reconstruction in Daytona North, the resurfacing of Armand Beach Drive and other roads in the county’s north, the addition of a multi-use trail on southern Old Kings Road and the creation of a new park at the Bulow Creek headwaters.
The five-year period begins with fiscal year 2024, which starts on July 1 for the state and will go through fiscal year 2028.
Each of FDOT’s seven districts puts together a tentative work program for the five-year period, and those programs are then compiled to create a statewide program that is reviewed by the governor and state legislators for approval by July 1.
The plan for Flagler County comes from a combination of priority projects, including ongoing ones: four from the county’s government, and six from the River-to-Sea Transportation Planning Organization.
The River-to-Sea TPO serves all of Volusia County and the developed east side of Flagler County, including Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach and parts of Palm Coast and Bunnell.
Alexander-Corbin said that FDOT has seen an overall 24% increase in project costs due to material shortages and price hikes, labor shortages, supply chain issues and inflation.
“That continues to be an issue as we’re stepping into the new year,” she said.
FDOT also needed to alter and reissue its notices that it was seeking bids, because of a lack of bidder interest — in some cases, the department would only receive one bid, at an extremely high price, she said.
“Prices were up and down from month to month,” Alexander-Corbin said. “So, it was really hard to kind of project and come up with our forecasting of what prices may be.”
Right-of-way acquisition costs also rose 15% because of the rise in land prices over the last year, she said.
Alexander-Corbin said FDOT did receive funding from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — an extra $3.5 billion.
FDOT also received funding from new resiliency programs and grants, she said.
