“Construction” and “10th Street” — if you live or work in St. Cloud, haven’t you heard enough of those two words going together?
After a massive streetscape project that forced closure of parts or all of 10th Street and a couple adjoining streets finished and everything completed, the City of St. Cloud will now study improving the rest of 10th Street, from where it meets 13th Street on the west, all the way east to Narcooossee Road.
The street is important as it’s the primary east-west gateway to and through downtown St. Cloud, and provides drivers and cyclists an alternate route to 13th Street, or U.S. Highway 192.
The City, in conjunction with MetroPlan Orlando, conducted a Complete Streets Study on the four-mile corridor. And now, it has secured a $1.2 million federal transportation grant to fund the Project Development and Environmental (PD&E) study for reconstructing it to better serve those walking or riding bicycles and improve connection to transit, like the bus system.
“We are thrilled to receive this grant, which will enable us to move this important project along,” said City Manager Veronica Miller. “We look forward to making improvements to 10th Street to improve the drainage in the area and enhance the safety for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.”
As part of that process, city officials said it solicited input from the residents and users of the roadway to identify needed improvements.
Those include adding sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, pedestrian scale lighting, speed management infrastructure, and improved drainage. The recommendations, according to the city’s study, will, “Support the project goal areas of safety, health, economy, and community. Public outreach is also a key element of this study.”
Once the study is complete, the City will be able to evaluate the best alternatives and opportunities, and get the corridor ready for construction.
The western end of 10th Street currently has gaps in sidewalks, is narrow with no shoulder and lacks curbs and gutters, and the city identified that vehicles tend to exceed the 30 mph posted speed limit, on the eastern end, especially at Eastern Avenue.
Several existing and proposed north-south trail and bikeway connections identified in the St. Cloud Citywide Trails Master Plan intersect 10th Street, at Dakota, Florida and Delaware avenues.
The improvements are not needed to accommodate future traffic volumes, as the city said in the study done in September 2021 that the current roadway can hold double today’s traffic volumes before exceeding maximum service volumes. In that study, the opinion of current conditions on 10th Street was rated by nearly 90% of those walking or riding a bike as “poor” or “needs improvement.”
“Places to safely ride a bike” and “gaps in sidewalks” were listed as the top challenges along 10th Street; for perspective, “traffic congestion” was listed sixth behind crossing the street and cars speeding.
