The developer will not help pay for a golf-cart bridge over Colony Boulevard, indicating he believes the costs will add up to more than $1 million.
The developer indicates a more workable solution would be either a traffic signal or roundabout at the point on Colony Boulevard where automobiles and golf carts intersect.
This according to an internal memo from District Manager Janet Tutt to members of the Project Wide Advisory Committee.
PWAC voted unanimously Dec. 12 to install a bridge at the location to help alleviate ongoing traffic headaches at the busy thoroughfare between the Colony Cottage Recreation Center and Colony Plaza shopping center.
Kimley-Horn Associates told PWAC members at the Dec. 12 meeting they believed the bridge would cost upwards of $400,000.
“Based on extensive construction experience,” Tutt wrote, the developer “estimates the total cost of the bridge option could reach $1 million-plus once the addition of engineering costs, infrastructure relocation and design standards are incorporated.”
The developer indicates he would be willing to kick in $100,000 toward a signal or roundabout at the location, the memo indicates. Either one of the those two options would be in the $200,000 price range.
The signal or roundabout resolution would allow time for the final construction to take place in Districts 9, 10 and the new 11, it was noted in Tutt’s memo.
“It would allow time for the increased commercial districts to materialize and ‘settle’ the traffic at the Colony crossing in addition to 466A. They believe that if this resolution does not work and there is a need for a more expensive comprehensive look at a later date, there will also be additional Districts to share in the cost (the balance of District 10 and District 11),” she wrote to PWAC members.
For now Community Watch personnel are directing traffic at the site. The daily cost of having Community Watch direct traffic at that site is roughly $200 per day or $1,400 per week.
At that Dec. 12 PWAC meeting, the committee indicated it would move ahead with the bridge even if the developer declined to share part of the cost.
PWAC has set a meeting for 9 a.m. Jan. 6 to discuss the situation.