If there is one question the Florida Department of Transportation gets more than any other, it's "How long will this take?"
Recently FDOT Secretary Jim Boxold spoke before a Manatee Chamber of Commerce meeting and answered audience questions about how projects are funded.
A lot of the questions focused on two of the larger projects on the minds of attendees: the Cortez Bridge and the I-75/University Parkway interchange.
FDOT District One Secretary Billy Hattaway was at the meeting and said that the University Parkway Project is fully funded and ready to break ground next month. It will be completed on schedule.
The Cortez Bridge project is farther out.
"That project is in the study phase and we do have...we've come up with some numbers on what the potential costs will be depending on which alternative is selected," he said.
Money is a big issue when it comes to state transportation projects. Many states rely heavily on federal funds to pay for state projects. In Florida, FDOT only uses 25 percent federal funds and has been working to increase the state's transportation reserves to make that dependency even lower.
"One of the things we've done historically is planned all of our project to be eligible for federal funding, and because the process takes so long, and because we have reduced our dependency on federal funding over time, it doesn't make sense for us to continue planning that way," Hattaway said. "So, we're looking seriously, and in fact we've already started programming projects that we will not switch to federal funds."
That means less overall time on construction projects from start to finish in Manatee County and across the state.
For more information on Manatee Projects, specifically related to the upcoming University Parkway reconstruction, the next public meeting will be held Thursday, July 23 at Keiser University, which is located at 6151 Lake Osprey Drive in Sarasota. The meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.