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Highlands Today

Sebring High School Rush Hour Stalled

Marc Valero/Highlands Today

Eastbound Traffic backs up on Kenilworth Boulevard Tuesday morning approaching the Highlands Avenue intersection. The construction of the Sebring Parkway near Sebring High School has added to the morning and afternoon traffic congestion in the the area.

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By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: September 3, 2008

Updated:

SEBRING - It's stop and go traffic, but mostly stop and wait at the Kenilworth Boulevard and Highlands Avenue intersection during the morning and afternoon school rush hours.

The Sebring Parkway construction along with parent and student traffic from Sebring High School is snarling traffic near the school.

"It's very aggravating," Arthur Ward said Tuesday morning as he waited in the long line of traffic on Kenilworth Boulevard approaching the Highlands Avenue intersection from the west.

At 8 a.m., traffic was backed up past Persimmon Avenue, and it took a few light changes to get through the intersection.

"I don't know what's going on," Ward said as he was trying to travel to Youth Care Lane. "They need to finish what they started," he said referring to the road construction.

Sebring High Assistant Principal Jim Howard said "It's very congested; It's just a lot of people trying to get into a small place."

It's more congested in the afternoon, he noted. Parents start lining up well before the last school bell sounds at 3 p.m., but by 3:30 p.m. most of the traffic has cleared.

It's almost impossible to make a left-hand turn exiting the school onto Kenilworth Boulevard, Howard said. It's recommended not to exit left, but to turn right and then take a side street to go around the traffic.

Due to the parkway construction, the traffic signal at Highlands and Kenilworth is operating in the "programmed time" mode and is currently set for 25 seconds for each cycle, which means when it turns red for your lane it will be another 3.3 minutes until it turns green.

"That's too long," County Engineer Ramon Gavarrete said Monday. The signal times will be adjusted later this week.

Gavarrete told the school board Aug. 26, "I know we still have some issues with that intersection at Kenilworth and Highlands. We have ordered some traffic counts to be made for turning movements."

The intersection is in a transition period, he said. "We still don't have the full widening of Kenilworth and we still don't have the new signals in."

If parents stop and wait to pick up their children at Sebring High, the line backs up onto Kenilworth Boulevard all the way to Highlands Avenue, Gavarrete said.

County road crews have not been working at the intersection since school started on Aug. 18, he said. The crews were busy "moving" flood waters from Tropical Storm Fay in the Lake Placid area.

Construction on the parkway will not resume until later next week or the week after, he added.

School Board Chairman J. Ned Hancock said the district's agreement with the county says that Kenilworth Boulevard was supposed to be widened with left and right turn lanes to Sebring High before the exit on Kenilworth near Highlands Avenue was closed.

"It's not a safe environment at this time," he added.

Gavarrete responded that the agreement does state that the improvements on Highlands Avenue have to be completed and the traffic signal at Commerce Avenue has to be in.

"Unfortunately, that part of Kenilworth was not 100 percent in the agreement," he said. "I do realize we have a problem, an issue, that we are trying to address."

The permanent solution is more than adding turning lanes, but includes the school lengthening the parent traffic lineup area on campus, Gavarrete said.

The next phase of parkway construction will be continuing the work on Kenilworth Boulevard, but with lane closures only during hours that would not affect the morning and afternoon school traffic, he said.

Gavarrete said Tuesday that he will be scheduling a meeting this week with Sebring High School officials to discuss traffic solutions.

Howard said parents just have to be patient and be cooperative and follow the directions of staff that are directing traffic on the campus.

"We are looking at ways to maybe ease the congestion," he said. "Eventually, it will be a lot better, but until we get all the blacktopping done and all the entrances and exits the way they are finally going to be, it's still going to be congested."

Marc Valero can be reached at 386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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