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After more than 15 years of planning, construction may soon begin on a $9.2 million pedestrian bridge over the CSX railroad tracks at New York Avenue between Main Street and Lake Wire Drive.
Work is scheduled to start in March on a steel truss overpass with switchback ramps for bicycles, Lakeland Planning & Transportation Manager Chuck Barmby told city commissioners Friday.
Connecting the dots: The state-funded bridge would link Lake Wire with the three-block New York Avenue cycle track — sometimes criticized as a “bike path to nowhere” because it currently dead ends just north of Main Street.
The enclosed, rustic-looking structure would provide continuous pedestrian and bicycle access from Lake Wire to downtown and the RP Funding Center.
It would also connect with a future Intermodal Center on Lemon Street and a planned bicycle path along the west side of Lake Hunter, which is scheduled for construction in 2028.
On the Lake Wire side of the tracks, a sign warns that New York Avenue comes to a dead end. | Cindy Glover, LkldNow 
Looking south, a chainlink fence and two guardrails block access to the CSX tracks and the New York Avenue cycle track. | Cindy Glover, LkldNow 
Looking south from Lake Wire. | Cindy Glover, LkldNow 
Currently, the New York Avenue cycle track dead ends just north of Main Street. | Cindy Glover, LkldNow 
Looking north, from New York Avenue. The pedestrian bridge would cross the CSX railroad tracks where guardrails currently interrupt the road. | Cindy Glover, LkldNow
A complicated partnership: Transportation projects are notoriously slow, but Barmby said this one has taken even longer than most because CSX had to approve it. Then the Florida Department of Transportation had to fund it.
FDOT spent $6.6 million for design and right-of-way acquisition, which ran from mid-2019 through March 2024. It has budgeted $9.2 million for construction, including the installation of sidewalks and lighting, and resurfacing portions of New York Avenue, Main Street and Lake Wire Drive.
Lakeland has allocated an additional $85,000 for aesthetic enhancements, including powder-coated railings and a concrete surface finish.
Gift to the city: City commissioners voted 6-1 today to approve a resolution confirming that once the overpass is complete, Lakeland will take over jurisdiction, ownership, liability and maintenance responsibilities.
Commissioner Stephanie Madden voted no as a protest about how long such projects take and how difficult it is to coordinate with FDOT as the city’s needs change.
Dramatic changes since 2009: When planning for the New York Avenue overpass began, Lakeland’s population was about 94,000 — compared with about 125,000 now — and Bonnet Springs Park did not yet exist.
Madden acknowledged that the Lake Wire area has grown — with the remediation of the old Florida Tile site for the 630-unit Prospect Lake Wire retail and residential complex and the 84-unit Peachtree Flats complex under construction on the north shore.
However, she lamented that the funding could not be shifted to more pressing needs. For instance, she said safe pedestrian connections to Bonnet Springs Park from George Jenkins Boulevard and Memorial Boulevard are far greater priorities for the city.
Frustrated by time span: “This is a hard sell to be excited about when you have so many other needs,” Madden said Friday. “When things take so long, and you can’t predict where your city is going to experience growth … 2009 to 2025 to get this, and it’s not even in the right spot.”
She said the cycle track does not get much use because it’s not connected to other things, but she questioned whether cyclists would want to navigate all of the ramps planned on New York Avenue.
“I mean, 20 years from now, maybe this will all be wonderful. But then it’ll all need to be repaired and rebuilt,” she said.
Meanwhile, she said Bonnet Springs Park is surrounded by fast-moving, multi-lane thoroughfares.
“It’s like teasing people to put a park right there, so close and yet so dangerously far away,” Madden said.
However, Barmby and Mayor Bill Mutz said the New York Avenue bridge is important and other projects are looking at how to provide pedestrian access to Bonnet Springs Park.
Commissioner Guy LaLonde Jr. added that Citrus Connection has done a “great job” providing circulator shuttles to the park from the Coleman-Bush Building in the meantime.
‘Regionally significant’: Barmby said the New York Avenue overpass is “regionally significant” and an important link in what will ultimately be a citywide network of bicycle and multiuse trails.
He also said freight traffic through Lakeland increased in 2014. Trains sometimes get stopped on tracks and pedestrians were sometimes walking or lifting bikes between the cars, creating a “very significant safety concern.”
Mutz acknowledged that slow timelines can be frustrating, but he said the New York Avenue crossing is a key element of Lakeland’s vision for multimodal transportation.
“It’s a piece of the connection, and it has CSX approval,” Mutz said. “We have to do these things when we can.”
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Help me with the math here … let’s assume 100 crossings a day x 10 years. That is 365,000 crossings. Now divide $9.2 M by 365,000. Comes to over $25 per crossing. Does not consider maintenance and upkeep. Fabulous waste of money, which is really not uncommon in Lakeland. How much low-income housing could be built for the same amount?