Indian River Drive Corridor Improvements Project<\/a>.’<\/p>\n“It’s a roadway improvement project, infrastructure project that’s going to provide a lot of benefits to the downtown corridor area,\u201d said Mark Zrallack, the Fort Pierce City Engineer.<\/p>\n
While the city could not provide us with renderings of what the project will look like finished, Indian River Drive, between Seaway Drive and Marina Way, will be completely reconstructed.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very popular area, so enhancing the cosmetics, the walkability, the safety, that’s an important part to allowing the city to grow and expand on that already valuable resource that we have in the waterfront area,\u201d said Zrallack.<\/p>\n
Part of that is adding about 25 additional on-street parking spots.<\/p>\n
“That’s a complaint we always hear is parking downtown,\u201d said Zrallack. “It’s not going to fully address the issue and all the complaints, but it will alleviate some of those concerns.”<\/p>\n
Pedestrian safety improvements is also top of mind for this project.<\/p>\n
“On the east side of the road, there’s going to be a 10 foot wide sidewalk, and then the west side of the road will be a six foot wide sidewalk, so allow for that pedestrian access. And then we’ll also have enhanced lighting to provide that pedestrian safety,\u201d said Zrallack.<\/p>\n
These enhancements coming with a $10.25-million price tag. City officials say that money is coming from various state and local sources.<\/p>\n
“Including the Florida Commerce grant, which is $2.7 million. The Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency, which is charged with the mission of redevelopment and eliminating slum and blight in our community, that has a $3 million contribution to this project,\u201d said Harnage.<\/p>\n
The rest of the almost $4-million needed will come from Road Impact Fees, paid by developers, and Half-Cent Infrastructure Surtax Funds , which is taxpayer-funded revenue approved by county voters in 2018.<\/p>\n
“Infrastructure is the core of any city, and we do have a historic downtown here in fort pierce, and it is so important that we continue to reinvest and make those improvements to modernize and sustainable improvements as well,\u201d said Harnage.<\/p>\n
With any reconstruction plan, also comes traffic impacts. Officials say they’re strategically using a phased approach.<\/p>\n
“So that Indian River Drive from that section of Avenue A to Seaway Drive is not going to be completely closed,\u201d said Harnage.<\/p>\n
“Se are providing access to all the businesses that are along that corridor. You just won’t be able to pass on Indian River Drive past the bridge until they get that done. So, there’ll be routing along second street and U.S. One that can get around those areas,\u201d said Zrallack.<\/p>\n
The biggest thing city officials want you to know, is all of the businesses in affected area, like the Backus Museum and Manatee Center, will remain open through construction. Officials say check the city’s website for traffic updates here.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Indian River Drive Corridor Improvements Project\u2019 broke ground in November and is expected to be complete by early 2027.<\/p>\n
City officials say the 37th Annual Sights & Sounds Holiday Parade will have a different route for the first time this month due to construction along Indian River Drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Parts of downtown Fort Pierce are getting a face lift! A transformative multi-million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-66971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}