RS&H completed the Florida Department of Transportation District 1’s first Alternative Corridor Evaluation (ACE) Feasibility Study, which evaluated the extension of SR 31 from US 17 north of Arcadia to SR 70 east of Arcadia. The new alignment will serve as a bypass for heavy truck traffic away from the downtown area and assist economic development in the rural region by providing access to proposed new development.

Since the proposed extension of SR 31 would require a new alignment, the project’s main challenge was developing alternatives supported by stakeholders that enhanced mobility while minimizing impacts within the study area. RS&H overcame this challenge by meeting with stakeholders early to understand their priorities and including them in the identification of constraints. Their input was combined with the same datasets state agencies use to identify impacted resources to develop a land suitability map (LSM) of the study area’s constraints before developing any alternative corridors.

RS&H’s use of LSM streamlined the ACE process by using the study area’s constraints to both develop and evaluate alternatives. This approach allowed the study team to thread corridors around constraints to minimize impacts, as well as easily quantify impacts to aid in comparative evaluations. Using state agency datasets for constraints mapping made the Efficient Transportation Decision Making review process easier.

By balancing engineering criteria with environmental considerations, three feasible corridors that minimized impacts while meeting the study’s purpose and need were recommended for additional study in the project development and environment (PD&E) phase of the project’s development.

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