FHWA Resource Center
RC Success Stories
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3
Your Link To Successful Solutions For Today's Transportation
APRIL/MAY 2003
Balancing Transportation...
...With Communities
CSS In Florida
Some would say that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has been practicing Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) for years - according to many, it's business as usual. FDOT first announced their version of a Context Sensitive Design (CSD) policy "Transportation Design for Livable Communities" in 1998, and have since produced numerous publications, including a 16-page chapter in their Plans Preparation Manual, related to this concept.
Context-sensitive design represents a collaborative approach to developing and redesigning transportation-facilities that enhance the physical setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic, historic and environmental resources without impairing safety or mobility.
During the 1990s highway design changed rapidly throughout the United States. Highway designers and builders have learned that they must be more sensitive to the impact of highways on the environment and communities. New and better ways of designing highways are evolving following the completion of the Interstate system, based on growing interest in the improvement of highways and their integration into the communities they serve.
Working with community stakeholders to preserve and enhance the human and natural environment thus becomes a significant component of these projects. To best address the challenges of these projects, many State transportation agencies and professional organizations are interested in implementing a context sensitive design approach for project development.
FDOT has many examples of well-balanced projects, showcasing their dedication to "do the right thing." From a little street in a small town, a big street in a little town to two new bridges, FDOT would like to share some of the following successful solutions that they have implemented most recently.
"Hot Area with a Cool Vibe"
- Gaines Street, Tallahassee
The Gaines Street Corridor is a good example of balancing community values, land use planning, safety and economic goals. Gaines Street serves as a gateway to the city, connecting the city's most significant institutions: the state capitol complex and two universities. The initial design would have turned the current four-lane street into what some considered a six-lane high-speed thoroughfare. Proactive citizens and city government, utilizing a consensus-building approach, re-guided the road improvements by focusing on future land use. What started out as a basic road project evolved into a comprehensive revitalization effort addressing economic development, trails and greenways, and historic preservation. The context sensitive solution created a four-lane thoroughfare with wide landscaped medians and a linear park.:You can obtain more information on Gaines Street in Tallahassee at this website
Reclaiming a Small Downtown
- Lake Worth
About ten years ago, you could drive through downtown Lake Worth along the six-lane speedways of Lake and Lucerne Avenues and not miss too much. Many of the storefronts were empty. After all, you were either on your way to or from the beach. Naturally, traffic accidents were on the rise. In one, a teenager traveling 55 mph through downtown broad sided another car and killed the driver. It's hard to believe there were only two lanes coming into and leaving the downtown area. The local regional planning council had been busy helping the city develop a master plan, incorporating the citizen's desire to retain its urban feel.
The city proposed traffic calming measures to FDOT. The resulting scope included one-way pairs, on-street parking, 11-foot travel lanes, a roundabout, 11-foot sidewalks, pavers, street furniture, bus stop bulbouts, and oak and palm trees. Two blocks have 21-foot sidewalks and outdoor cafes. Whatever word you choose, livable, sustainable, or context sensitive, the citizens of Lake Worth have demonstrated that with a little help they have accomplished their vision. (Note: The Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council is the only one in the country that has a four-person, in-house design studio capable of providing master plans.) More information on downtown Lake Worth
"CSS is doing the right thing to find appropriate solutions for challenging environmental and design considerations"
- C. Leroy Irwin
Manager, Environmental Management Office
The St. George Island Bridge
- Incorporating CSS in Design-Build
The St. George Island Bridge Replacement Project features a 21,615-foot long bridge over Apalachicola Bay in some of the most environmentally sensitive waters in North America. The Bay accounts for 90% of the oyster harvest in Florida, and is home to several endangered species, including the gulf sturgeon and West Indian Manatee. And if that isn't enough, the causeway connecting the bridge to the Island is the home of four kinds of nesting migratory birds - least terns, royal terns, sandwich terns, and laughing gulls - often targets of anxious beach combers.
A different group of citizens has been key to the development of this project - commercial and recreational fishermen. Oyster bars cover approximately 10,600 acres of the submerged bottom, and the design-build team sponsored and assisted with the relaying of nearly 40,000 bushels of at-risk oysters. Twenty-eight boats with up to three workers per boat "harvested" oysters and then deposited their cargo at a check point where the oysters have good opportunity to mature and procreate, thus providing future resources. After the new bridge is open to traffic, the old bridge will be partially removed. At both the north and south ends, about 3,250-feet will be left in place as pedestrian-friendly fishing piers (no cars/trucks), accessible from the mainland with paved parking for about 20 cars each. The portion of the old bridge to be removed will be disassembled and reused as shore protection around the bird sanctuary or as artificial reef. There will be no land access to the existing causeway located between the two existing bridges. This future "island" will be maintained as a bird sanctuary
Broadway Bridge
- "Daytona Beach's Newest Permanent Art Exhibit"
The Broadway Bridge, the link between the speedway and the beach, replaces a bascule bridge that had become too expensive to maintain & operate, with a 3,008-ft precast concrete segmental bridge comprised of twin 48-ft wide structures, each carrying two lanes of traffic and a wide pedestrian sidewalk. But this is not just another pretty bridge - this work of art imparts a sense of motion, not only by the wave pattern of long spans and a variable depth superstructure, but also by the glass mosaic tiles designed for the citizen selected theme of Timeless Ecology. It's no wonder that this bridge was awarded the 2002 Gustav C. Lindenthal Medal for a single, recent outstanding achievement demonstrating harmony with the environment, aesthetic merit and successful community participation-in addition to technical and material innovation. The Broadway Bridge also won the "2002 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Excellence in Highway Design Award of Excellence for Major Highway Structures" over $10 million.
"Florida DOT in its own right has been a pioneer developing and using CSS over the years"
-Jim St. John, Florida FHWA Division Administrator
Daytona Beach's Broadway Bridge
Community input contributed significantly to the design as residents voted on over 40 items, including bridge shapes, color, railing, lighting, landscaping, and aesthetic elements. The charette/consensus methods resulted in the selection of glass mosaic tile designs of wildlife indigenous to the Halifax River (Intracoastal Waterway). Boats enjoy the 10-foot high mosaics of dolphins and manatees that wrap the piers. Pedestrians experience 18 different wildlife mosaics, one at each of the span segments, in a well-crafted order. First, creatures of the sea near the bridge landing, panthers and others of the land as one ascends, and finally, air borne creatures like ospreys and egrets as the bridge rises to a pair of bald eagles at the apex. And, as an extra bonus, FDOT donated ten acres for a riverfront park of newly available land from the bridge realignment. For more information, please visit the website at:Daytona Beach's Broadway Bridge
For further information on the great work that FDOT is doing, please contact:
Debbie Wolfe atdeborah.wolfe@fhwa.dot.gov / 850-942-9650 ext 3030
Marvin Williams atMarvin.L.Williams@fhwa.dot.gov / 850-942-9650 ext 3029 of FHWA Florida Division.
Bob Crim atbob.crim@dot.state.fl.us / (850) 410-5891, Florida DOT Environmental Management Office, FDOT
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