PORT ST. LUCIE — As engineering plans for segments of the Crosstown Parkway get finalized in coming months, homeowners near the corridor's edges wait nervously for the earthen barriers to shield them from vehicle traffic.
"We're not too thrilled," said Teri Paisley, who expected a road expansion when she bought her property four years ago but noted the project has gotten bigger since then.
The segments from Interstate 95 over Florida's Turnpike to Manth Lane should be finished by sometime in 2009, allowing a major east-west route through most of the city. Workers will build berms on both sides of the road with grass, bushes and trees on top through the entire project, although the height will vary, officials said.
Project manager Jim Angstadt, who oversees the segment from I-95 to Florida's Turnpike, said the city will leave in place a berm abutting Lake Charles, a neighborhood in St. Lucie West. Workers will start adding a 5- to 8-foot-high berm on the south side of the Parkway in March or early April to shield neighbors on Southwest Janette Avenue, Angstadt said.
In addition, the city will install a 6-foot-high chain-link fence clad in black vinyl along the property line as an extra barrier on segment two, from the turnpike to Manth Lane, and possibly a similar fence on segment four, from the turnpike west to I-95, he said.
Segment two's berm will be lower — 3 to 4 feet — in places, Angstadt said, but will have more landscaping than in other areas.
Officials sped up constructing a berm along several blocks east of the turnpike between Empire and Hibiscus streets last year after residents abutting the future parkway complained that dirt from immense piles was swirling into their yards.
Teri and Bob Paisley said the city could have kept residents like them more informed on the project. They researched the parkway before they bought their land but said it got bigger since then, including going from four to six lanes.
"I'm afraid (the parkway) will decrease property values of the houses backing up to it," Bob Paisley said.
Residents in Lake Charles have voiced concerns as well, even taking their Councilwoman, Michelle Berger, on a golf cart tour of the areas closest to the parkway. They told her they wanted more berms, but she said, "We want to make sure one neighborhood doesn't get more than others."
Armand Moniz, 80, a resident near the parkway's southern edge, said he was fine with the road as long as the berm was put up.
"Anything to stop the congestion and traffic," he said.
By CHRIS YOUNG chris.young@scripps.com January 15, 2007
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