Brian Brooker of the Florida Department of Transportation’s Suncoast Connector project speaks to Levy County Commissioners. Ryan Asmus, an FDOT road design project engineer also representing Suncoast, (right) and Jeff Arms of Northern Turnpike Connector project (center) listen to the presentation.

By Terry Witt -Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Florida Department of Transportation officials say they haven’t selected a route for a toll road that might be constructed through Levy County but they will narrow the possibilities down to something that looks like a route next year.

            “Within six to eight months we will have something that’s more like a path, “said Ryan Asmus, program lead for the Suncoast Connector project. “A lot of the groundwork has already been done with the task force.”

            Asmus was speaking to the Levy County Commission Tuesday.

            DOT will move into the project development and engineering (PD&E) phase of the toll road study next year. Alignments or paths will be identified by DOT and shown on internet-based maps at some point in 2021.

            Commission Chairman Matt Brooks said it was his understanding the state wouldn’t be offering an “all or nothing deal” with just one route shown on the map. Asmus said the DOT would probably bring back four alternative paths or multiple paths. He said the “no-build” alternative is also in play.

            The state is less than a month away from ending the two task force studies related to toll road development. The Suncoast Connector Task Force and Northern Turnpike Connector Task Force have produced online draft reports summarizing their work. Final reports will be submitted to the governor on Nov. 15.

            Members of the public can read and comment on the reports using traditional letters or online messages via the M-CORES website. M-CORES (Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance) is the state’s name for proposed toll road corridors.

            Suncoast Connector would pass through Citrus and Levy Counties and terminate in Jefferson County.

            The Northern Turnpike Connector would link the northern tip of the existing turnpike at Wildwood, FL in Sumter County to Suncoast Parkway in Citrus County and with the Suncoast Connector. The Veterans Expressway in Tampa feeds traffic to Suncoast Parkway.

            DOT has been criticized for failing to use the two task force groups to narrow down the study areas to a proposed route, but the agency said the task forces were never intended for that purpose. That was never made clear to the public until recently.

            The two task force groups have written guiding principles that define what the state should avoid and where the roads could be constructed. Both task force groups have developed colored maps showing areas off-limits to toll road construction in magenta and areas where no new corridors can be constructed in light pink.

            One big block colored magenta begins in northwest Levy County east of Williston and spreads into Marion County. The state has offered no explanation why that particular area is off-limits to toll roads but an area like Goethe State Forest is shown in light pink.

            Areas in light pink are off-limits to new toll road construction but it becomes a matter of semantics. If existing roads pass through the light pink areas the state says those existing roads could potentially be fair game for toll road construction.

            Goethe State Forest has several roads passing through it and is colored light pink but state officials said the guiding principles would make toll road construction unlikely through the forest.

            It’s complicated.

            M-CORES officials say they have been completely open about their task force studies but that hasn’t always been the case for the media. Efforts by Spotlight to quote M-CORES officials during in-person open houses for the Suncoast Connector and Northern Turnpike Connector have met with resistance. M-CORES officials attending those meetings said they could not be quoted. The media was told to contact the state public information officer for FDOT.

            At the most recent Northern Turnpike Connector open house at the Tommy Usher Center in Chiefland, state officials required the media to wear face masks. When a Spotlight reporter refused to wear a mask, one state M-CORES official said they would carry around a plastic shield everywhere the reporter sat to screen the public employee from the reporter.

            M-CORES officials at the open house said they could not be quoted by the media.

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting October 6, 2020; Posted October 9, 2020