PORT ST. LUCIE — Motorists should expect slight delays from periodic lane closures on a half-mile section of Becker Road being widened from two to four lanes.

The road will remain open as the city continues the widening project from Paley Court to the interchange at Florida’s Turnpike beginning Monday for the next six months, according to Jim Angstadt, a civil engineer with the city.

Each direction of traffic will take turns using one lane from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., he said, but construction will be going on from 7 a.m. until dusk, or about 5 p.m.

Angstadt said the construction includes 10-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road, a 20-foot median, curbs, gutters and landscaping. The drainage and ponds are set for a six-lane roadway in case the city needs to further widen the road but has no plans to do so yet.

Construction on the original plan to widen Becker Road from I-95 to the turnpike began a year ago. “When this project began the planning process,” Angstadt said, “the city had no major corridor to the southern end of the city.”

More than a mile of roadway was widened from Hallmark Street to Tacoma Street. Less than a mile of roadway from there to east of Port St. Lucie Boulevard still is under construction because of the high number of utility relocations.

The city still is trying to pull together money for a skipped third phase of the widening project, so Angstadt said he doesn’t have a schedule yet.

The $30 million cost of the project’s construction, design and permitting could change because of the third phase. He said the amount doesn’t include property acquisitions.

“I do not have a handle on (it) because it is so vast,” Angstadt said.

The city had planned for interchanges at Interstate 95 and the turnpike. He said the Tesoro area developed, and the city acquired the southwest annexation area.

Several traffic studies showed the city would need a four- to six-lane roadway, Angstadt said.

“It was very logical when you looked at a map of the city to see that you didn’t want to have two interchanges and a little two-lane road connecting them,” he said.

- By Laurie K. Blandford

Tags: Port St. Lucie, roads, Traffic

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie County, Traffic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.