Not a good idea

From the very beginning the News-Sun has had reservations about Phase III of the Parkway, which will go north from the right angle turn on Phase I to the intersection of College and Memorial drives in Avon Park.

We believe spending $6.5 million for a 4.1-mile section of road in these times of financial uncertainty is unwise -- particularly because we think there is little benefit in the extension.

Phase III would roughly parallel both U. S. 27 and Memorial Drive to the east, then bend west to intersect with Memorial at South Florida Community College. It is difficult to understand the gain in another north/south roadway that doesn't reach Avon Park proper at one end, and terminates in the middle of Phase I -- a limited access roadway designed to skirt Sebring along its eastern boundaries -- at the other.

In other words, the extension will only be really useful to SFCC students and staff who live in east Sebring. For everyone else, it essentially goes from nowhere to nowhere.

In terms of paying for the road, it is true $3 million is coming from the Florida Department of Transportation, but $3.5 million will come from the local option gas tax. We feel those funds could be used for more urgent transportation needs.

Besides the usefulness and funding issues, however, are serious questions of safety.

Phase III will be a two-lane road. That means drivers caught behind slower traffic -- on what is called a parkway -- may take passing risks that endanger everyone.

More troubling still, the current plan calls for College Drive to become a main east/west corridor to U. S. 27 from the parkway.

This is not a good fit. College Drive is relatively narrow. It twists and turns its way through the SFCC campus, where the majority of college parking lot entrances and exits open directly into it.

We are very concerned traffic along College Drive would not only increase, but speed up as well. A college campus and main artery don't mix.

On the other hand, we can't support the option proposed by the college -- a complicated Y shaped intersection redirecting traffic north up Memorial Drive, instead of west into the school.

For one thing, it means Memorial Drive would deliver heavier traffic onto Avon Park neighborhood streets.

For another, more land would have to be purchased and new engineering studies done. Estimates are a safer solution might cost as much as an additional $500,000, and certainly no less than $380,000. To add those costs to an already multiple million dollar project is reckless.

In fact, it seems to us irrational to spend any money at all on Phase III, and we recommend canceling the project.