The Florida Department of Transportation is finishing work at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Venetian Drive.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Jane Smith
Delray Beach will have thinner landscape islands at the east Atlantic Avenue intersections of Venetian Drive and Gleason Street.
New mast-arm signal poles with 54-inch foundations have been installed in the middle of the sidewalk on the north side of Atlantic at Venetian, leaving just enough room for a wheelchair, stroller or beach wagon to pass through. “It meets the minimum” for federal regulations on handicapped access, said Andy Katz, vice president of the Beach Property Owners Association. But he thinks something should be done there to widen the passage.
The mayor agrees.
At the April 19 City Commission meeting, Mayor Cary Glickstein called those two intersections “dangerous pedestrian areas” where you have “to turn sideways to walk down the sidewalk.”
Florida Department of Transportation contractors are doing the work for which the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency paid $547,865.40.
The work, which started in mid-January, was marred by rain delays, unrelated problems at the concrete plant and Atlantic Avenue street closings for Delray Beach events. The contractors worked weekdays only, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. As a result, the estimated two-month project is stretching to nearly four months.
The contractor also drilled into city utility lines that power the street lights and irrigation systems. They had to be fixed and the city had to wait its turn to get at them, Environmental Services Director John Morgan told the commission.
“I’m concerned about how disruptive it’s been,” he said.
At the mayor’s urging, Morgan requested using some of the landscape island space from FDOT because that property is owned by the state. The city would then widen the sidewalk in that area to make it compatible with other parts of East Atlantic Avenue that have wider paths.
At Venetian and Atlantic on the north side, the narrowest passage is three feet, which meets federal guidelines. It can be reduced to 32 inches with certain constraints, said Meredith Cruz, project spokeswoman.
That was the only place where FDOT contractors could not install the foundation in the landscaped area because it contained too many utility lines, she said.
The contractors were expected to restore the work areas, including replacing sidewalk pavers, by the end of the first week in May — weather permitting.
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