Honore Ribbon Cutting Set for Nov. 17

The ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of a major two-year extension and improvement project for Honore Avenue from Bee Ridge to Fruitville roads will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at the intersection of Honore Avenue and Webber Street. 

The 2.7-mile-long project was designed to protect the neighborhood character with minimal intrusion.

The county said it would provide greater mobility for residents and visitors by constructing an appealing two-lane divided roadway with sustainable, environmentally friendly features, including Florida-friendly landscaping, bio-swales and rain gardens to treat stormwater runoff and vegetative buffers.

Bicycle lanes, meandering sidewalks on both sides of the road, crosswalks, bus stops and decorative light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights in the medians were included in the design-build project, a county news release said. 

The original project was budgeted at $14.2 million, but was increased to about $18 million to address neighborhood concerns and to clean up an old landfill area that was located in the corridor.

To improve traffic flow, six roundabouts were built on Honore at the intersections of Brookmeade Drive, Webber Street, Colonial Oaks Boulevard, Palmer Boulevard, Sawgrass Road and Camus Street/Antoinette Street. Also, a decorative medallion was installed at the Bahia Vista Street and Honore Avenue intersection. 

“We held neighborhood meetings and focus groups and met with businesses and residents to make sure that we addressed their concerns about using vegetative buffers, significantly minimizing tree removal by constructing boardwalks to supplement sidewalks, keeping the character of the neighborhoods intact as much as possible, and using bio-swales and rain gardens for handling stormwater instead of just building stormwater ponds. This approach saved hundreds of trees,” said Jim Harriott, executive director of Sarasota County Public Works in a news release.

“We coordinated with Fruitville Elementary School officials to minimize the impact of road construction and ensure that the traffic flow was maintained," he said.

Funding was provided primarily by the penny surtax (1-cent sales tax), as part of the county’s economic stimulus program of fast-track, capital-improvement projects.