DeLand, FL - It's a part of the Daytona Beach area which is growing more and more, especially with big new housing developments like Latitude Margaritaville.
Now Volusia County wants to know how much it might cost to improve the roads around Interstate 95 in Daytona Beach, Holly Hill and Ormond Beach so that it can handle the expected traffic increase those developments will bring over the next 20 years.
In yesterday's (August 7th) meeting, the Volusia County Council unanimously OK'd spending over $54,000 on a study to find the best ways to solve those potential traffic problems, with the focus mainly on the west side of Interstate 95.
Jon Cheney - Volusia County Director of Traffic Engineering - told the VCC during the meeting that the study will build on data from a recent interchange study by the Florida Department of Transportation which focused mostly on LPGA Boulevard.
"By working with [FDOT] and taking their data for the study, that saves the county a significant amount of money," noted Volusia County Interim Manager George Recktenwald after Cheney's short presentation.
Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. - an Orlando-based traffic engineering and transportation planning firm - will be in charge of all aspects of the study, which will primarily focus on potential widening and expansion of roads in the LPGA area.
Among the items the study will consider are widening LPGA Boulevard from Clyde Morris Boulevard west to Tournament Drive and Williamson Boulevard from just north of LPGA to just south of Hand Avenue. That doesn't include the current widening of parts of Williamson to four lanes.
A possible extension of Tournament north to State Road 40 will also be investigated, as will extensions of Hand and Dunn avenues along with Tymber Creek and Stage Coach roads.
As the map below shows, the potential extensions in all those cases would run those roads deep into the western parts of the Daytona Beach area, with some ending not far from Tiger Bay State Forest.
The map was taken from the paperwork VHB Inc. submitted to the county and listed with the agenda item in the meeting.
The study will also document existing road conditions to determine if those potential moves are needed and when they might be needed.
Over 6,000 homes are planned for Latitude Margaritaville and various other real estate developers have plans to build thousands more around that area in the near future.
