Part of Saxon — connecting Deltona and Orange City — to be six lanes

BEACON PHOTO/AL EVERSON
Emergency repairs continue — Work continues on Saxon Boulevard to repair damage from Tropical Storm Fay more than a year ago. This spring, the county plans to begin widening a portion of the road to six lanes.

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Feb 9, 2010 - 9:14:37am

A road connecting Deltona and Orange City will be widened this year for safety reasons.

A 1-mile stretch of Saxon Boulevard between Interstate 4 and Enterprise Road will become a six-lane corridor divided by a grass median.

The public will get a chance to preview the project before it begins, County Engineer Gerald Brinton said.

After the public meeting, the county will advertise for bids and may ask the County Council in early spring to award the contract.

Brinton estimated the project will take about eight months and will cost about $3 million.

Widening Saxon, he said, involves making continuous lanes on the outside of the road in each direction, using the right-turn access that runs in front of many businesses along Saxon Boulevard.

“It’s truly like right-turn-lane now,” said Brinton. “What it’s basically doing is connecting the outside lane.”

Adding the grass median will discourage dangerous left turns. Currently, many drivers turn left into driveways that are supposed to be entered by right turns only. The right-turn-in/right-turn-out driveways often have raised concrete fixtures, sometimes called pork chops, to deter illegal left turns.

Data compiled by county traffic engineers show there were 169 accidents involving left turns on Saxon Boulevard between West Finland Drive in Deltona and Enterprise Road in Orange City between April 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009.

Adding two lanes — one eastbound and one westbound — will follow repairs on portions of shoulders that collapsed during Tropical Storm Fay in August 2008. The edge of the road and parts of sidewalks collapsed because of damaged corrugated-metal stormwater pipes underground. The county secured a federal grant of approximately $250,000 to cover the cost of the repairs.

Using federal funds was approved because the affected segment of Saxon serves as a connector between two federal highways, Interstate 4 and U.S. Highway 17-92.

What will be the effect of the Saxon widening on businesses?

“There will be inconvenience, but there will never be a lack of access,” Brinton said. “What you will see in front of individual businesses is lane closure.”

The average daily traffic volume on Saxon Boulevard between Enterprise Road and Veterans Memorial Parkway was 30,170 vehicles in 2008, the latest available year. The 2008 average daily traffic count between Veterans Memorial Parkway and the Park & Ride at the I-4 interchange was 41,750.

— al@beacononlinenews.com

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