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Highlands Today

Parkway Creeps Closer To Completion

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

A 1,900 foot long section of the Sebring Parkway between North Ridgewood Drive and Center Avenue, including Grapefruit Avenue, opened late last week in Sebring.

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By Bill Rettew Jr. | Highlands Today

Published: June 3, 2008

SEBRING — Another piece in the puzzle that is the Sebring Parkway was put into place late last week, as construction continues southward along Highlands Avenue on the $28 million roadway.
A 1,900-foot-long stretch from North Ridgewood Drive to East Center Avenue reopened after road barriers went up in late December.

Ramon Gavarrete, Highlands County engineer, is overseeing the project, with the department acting as the project's general contractor.

Gavarrete said on Monday that the new addition slices a couple of minutes from his daily commute. Fellow engineering department employee Dixie Kreulen, public works specialist, said she trimmed a minute from her ride home.

"It's always a good thing to go faster," said Kreulen, with a smile.
New traffic signals will control motorists within a year, where both Lemon and Center avenues cross the new roadway, according to Gavarrete.

When those traffic lights are installed, the Parkway's traffic striping will be repainted and the bypass will widen from two to four, or in some places, five lanes.

An eight-foot-wide multi-use concrete path runs alongside the recently reopened addition and will run parallel to the entire parkway for 7.25 miles.

"It will be a lot nicer for everybody," said Gavarrete. "People will be able to ride bikes or walk from Highlands Regional (Medical Center) to the Wal-Mart with several connections to the Lakeview Drive sidewalk."

The projected roadway borders three schools, Sebring High, Fred Wild Elementary and Sebring Middle.
Road cones will return and flaggers will intermittently control one travel lane at a time, from about 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., in front of Sebring High School on Highlands Avenue, and for widening on Kenilworth Boulevard from Persimmon Avenue, across Highlands Avenue to the end of the Sebring High property.

Gavarrete said the project is two years away from completion.

"We've got a lot of work to do in two and a half months," said Gavarrete. "Hopefully people will be patient. People forget that construction is not neat and construction is not fast."
City of Sebring water lines will be relocated and the railroad crossing at Highland Avenue will be replaced.

Gavarrete estimated that 51 percent of the work will be completed by an outside contractor, and the rest by county employees. He gave the following breakdown for the financing sources of the $28 million project ( the numbers are approximate):
* $2 million, state of Florida grants
* $12.3 million, from penny sales tax for infrastructure improvements
* $4.4 million from projected county impact fee revenues
* $616,000 from the Highlands County School Board
* $4.4 million transportation travel fund or gas tax
* $ 4.5 million, total or $300,000 year from the city of Sebring

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