Parkway Construction Phase To Be Done Before High School Opens

Construction of the segment of Sebring Parkway alongside Sebring High School will be finished before school starts on Aug. 18, Highlands County Engineer Ramon Gavarrete said Monday.

Earlier this year, the county extended the parkway from where it had ended at North Ridgewood Drive, to Center Street, near Sebring Middle School. Eventually, the four-lane, limited access parkway will continue from Center Street and replace Highlands Avenue, running all the way south to U.S. 27.

The parkway segment under construction now runs from the intersection of Kenilworth Boulevard and Highlands Avenue, alongside the high school, to Commerce Avenue.

The next phase of parkway construction will connect the parkway from Commerce Avenue to where the parkway now ends at Center Street.

Private contractors have been hired to do the asphalt paving, while crews from the county's road and bridge department, engineer's office and traffic operations are also working on the project.

"We're also contracting out the concrete work on sidewalks and curbing," Gavarrete said.

Ed Yarbrough, interim director of the road and bridge department, said crews are digging up the intersection of Kenilworth Boulevard and Highlands Avenue to relocate underground utility lines.

With that being the major intersection by the high school, county crews will make sure that their underground utility work is completed before the first day of classes on Aug. 18, Yarbrough said.

"It'll be opened back up by the beginning of school," he said.

"We won't have time to do the (underground) pipe work and get it paved and widened before school begins," he added. "So we're doing the pipe work and we'll get it (roadway) patched up in time."

Construction in that area will continue when school is in session, but will be limited to 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"Any work that will be done there (with school in session) will be done during the school day and off to the side," Yarbrough said.