MPO Gives Green Light to PD&E 15th Street East

BRADENTON -- At Monday's Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting, project manager Bill Howell gave a presentation on how Bradenton's 15th Street East is going to look and function if all goes according to future plans.

Howell says the three mile stretch between Tallevast Rd. and 53rd Ave East (SR 70) is in for a major makeover. The current two lanes will be expanded to three that will support a turn lane, bicycle path and other multimodal provisions.

Artist Rendition

The "Complete Street" project will be a north/south arterial linking Bradenton to South Manatee County, while improving travel for bicycles, pedestrians and mass transit, as well as making movement safer for all modes.

Crashes, injuries and deaths are above the national average in an area that for years has been struggling economically as well. 

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), 5-year project is entering into it's Project Design and Environmental (PD&E) stage with an estimated cost of $8.2 million. 

The corridor transit provisions will be served by MCAT Route 16, and connect to SCAT Route 8 in front of the Goodwill at 60-minute intervals. In the last couple of years, ridership has been up by 5.1 percent, and wheelchair ridership up 332 percent.

Shelters will have bike racks, buses will have travel lanes and trucks will have more room for turns.