By Jeremy Morrison, Inweekly
Last week, city of Pensacola officials met with a visiting team from the Florida Department of Transportation. It was a productive meeting, Mayor Grover Robinson said during his weekly press conference Monday, with numerous items on the table for discussion.
For starters, city officials were keen to discuss a planned road diet for North Palafox, which should be happening next spring. Also, though details remain to be worked out, the plan to turn MLK and Davis into two-way streets is progressing.
The number one issue, though, Mayor Robinson stressed, was the city’s need to expand operations at the Pensacola International Airport.
“We are busting at the seams,” Robinson said.
In recent years, passenger numbers at the city’s airport have seen significant increases, but not without a cost — “The records numbers that we have are beginning to show wear and tear on our physical plant, which we’ve known for some time,” the mayor said — in particular to the facility’s elevators and escalators.
“So, yes, in the main airport terminal building, we have had challenges with both the escalators and the elevators,” explained Deputy City Administrator Amy Miller. “However, we have never had an instance where the elevator in the garage has been down at the same time.”
Miller said that though the airport’s escalators and elevators have experienced issues, the situation has not led to any ADA access problems, as airport patrons may use the elevators in the adjoining parking garage facility.
In addition to addressing malfunctioning elevators and escalators, the facility’s parking has become inadequate for the increased passenger traffic. The question is, how best to maintain the facility while awaiting overall upgrades already on the drawing board?
“Our biggest issue is, do we go put a bunch of money into it, only to rip it out in three to five years because we’re doing an expansion of the overall airport,” Mayor Robinson said.
When meeting with FDOT last week, the mayor said a primary topic of discussion was getting the agency on board with the city’s airport expansion plans as it pursues federal infrastructure funding next year. The city has engaged in similar talks with Sen. Doug Broxson and the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We think the city will be well-positioned,” Robinson said of the federal funding.
Slaying Downtown’s Poo Monster?
In a twist of sorts, Mayor Robinson said Monday, FDOT may have also inadvertently helped solve the mystery of human waste entering downtown’s stormwater system and making its way into the waters off Bruce Beach, where the city is currently investing millions in a public amenities project.
While performing roadwork to address erosion issues beneath the roadway at the intersection of Garden and Spring streets, the mayor relayed that FDOT determined that previous roadwork had impacted a sewer line, which was leaking, causing the erosion and also, potentially, the presence of human waste that testing last year was entering downtown’s stormwater system.
“We believe that may be our primary culprit,” Mayor Robinson said.
Since testing revealed this issue last year, the city has worked with the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, which maintains the wastewater lines, to determine possible sources of infiltration, where the wastewater might be exiting the lines and entering the stormwater system, which flushes to Pensacola Bay. Mayor Robinson said that the wastewater line beneath Garden and Spring had been leaking for some time and could potentially contribute significantly to the contamination issue.
“We’ll continue to work and continue to test, but we may have found our problem that was creating all of our problems at Bruce Beach,” the mayor said.