By DOTTY NIST
With the goal of helping cars pass low speed vehicles (LSVs) to help with traffic flow, the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) recently approved a pilot LSV pull-over lane at one location on CR-30A.
The pilot lane was approved at the April 25 BCC meeting at the South Walton Annex.
After the idea of pull-off lanes was brought up by District 4 Commissioner Donna Johns, Walton County Public Works had been asked to work with Walton County Beach Operations and bring forward a plan for adding some of these lanes to help prevent traffic back-up on CR-30A, where LSVs are abundant.
Addressing the commissioners at the April 25 meeting on the topic was Chance Powell of Walton County Public Works Engineering. Powell said staff had looked at several locations for eastbound and westbound low-speed lanes. These included three sites, one located between Blue Mountain Beach and Grayton Beach, one located between Grayton Beach and WaterColor, and one located east of Seagrove in the Deer Lake State Park area.
Powell said what was envisioned was a paved lane just outside of the travel lane with two-foot gore (gap) area plus a six-foot lane width. He said the lanes would be approximately 250 to 300 feet long.
Powell said plans would include signs displaying a golf cart symbol with the wording “use right lane,” and that LSV drivers would be encouraged to get over into the pull-over lane and allow other vehicles behind them to pass.
With the LSV going approximately 20 miles per hour, it would be in the 250- to 300-foot-long pull-over lane for about 10 seconds before pulling back into the main travel lane, Powell estimated.
Powell’s recommendation was to construct one pull-off lane off the westbound lane of CR-30A at one of the proposed locations, close to Western Lake, as a pilot project.
He suggested getting the lane constructed and seeing what the public response would be—and then the county looking at whether to consider proceeding with some of the other pull-off lane locations.
Powell said he thought the pilot project could be done with in-house crews at a cost of $18,000 for the pavement markings and base.
“I like the idea of us doing one and let’s see what bugs need to be worked out, if any,” said District 1 Commissioner Boots McCormick.
“I agree,” Johns commented.
District 5 Commissioner Tony Anderson moved for approval of the pilot project, and McCormick seconded.
With no one coming forward to offer public comment, the motion was approved unanimously.