UPDATE: City council agreed Monday evening to an FDOT plan on extending left turn lanes into Stuart. The city says additional changes will be considered at a future date to improve the traffic issue in the area.
EARLIER STORY:
State and local leaders are looking at how to unblock a longtime bottleneck in downtown Stuart.
Right now, it's not clear what the best path to take is.
At the base of the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, the Victorian Aveda Salon is busy booking customers and cutting hair. Employees love the location, but they don’t love the traffic hazards.
"I don’t want to get rear ended," said Holly Wayt.
The Salon is on Joan Jefferson Way, right off U.S. 1. The road is one of two main routes off U.S. 1 into downtown Stuart from the north.
"Bumper to bumper all the way down," said Holly's sister, Lesley. "So we hear a lot of beeping and honking and people getting frustrated."
With a new apartment complex under construction, more people and cars are coming.
"There’s many mornings that I’m here and I see an accident and it upsets me because it starts my day off wrong," said Wayt.
This area has been getting a hard look for years on how to improve the traffic flow.
The Florida Department of Transportation has come up with four alternatives. One would extend the turn lanes coming south over the Roosevelt Bridge. A second would make Joan Jefferson Way a one-way street.
A Stuart city spokesperson said they wouldn’t be comfortable with a one-way option without a lot more analysis done.
The Martin County Metropolitan Planning Organization approved the first alternative last September, which is an extension of the turn lanes at Joan Jefferson Way and Ocean Boulevard.
But in FDOT’s own presentation it will make to Stuart city leaders Monday night, it said that option does not satisfy the project objective by addressing congestion and safety concerns.
WPTV has reached out to both the MPO and FDOT to explain the potential discrepancy.
An FDOT spokesperson said this is all still in the planning stages and there is no timeline set for a final decision or construction.
