Road building package is exactly what Florida needs

I was disappointed by the May 17 opinion, “Apparently, Gov. DeSantis is not the environmentalist we thought he was:” Those who followed my 2018 campaign know that we traveled 105,000 miles over 18 months and every corner of all 67 counties. What I saw aligns with the priorities of Senate Bill 7086, which creates more than just three new toll roads. It brings infrastructure to our rural communities, including funding for water, sewer, and telecommunications. But the new roads are the controversy: The Florida Turnpike extension, Suncoast Parkway extension, and Southwest-Central Florida Connector.

The bill has drawn opposition from environmental advocates because, if not done correctly, it would have an enormous, negative impact on some of the keystone species in our state and destroy the valuable side of our rural communities. Thankfully, the bill allows the Florida Department of Transportation flexibility to achieve the goals by using existing roads to benefit growth and the environment.

U.S. 17 and U.S. 27 already have long stretches with 4-6 lanes and are still rural. On the Nature Coast, U.S. 19/98 is an interstate facility from Inglis to Monticello, with the same rural dynamic. Upgrading these existing roads to limited access and incorporating true bypasses would have huge cost savings and avoid the design, acquisition, and construction of new roads in untouched areas.

The environment would gain, the economic heart of these rural counties wouldn’t be permanently lost, and the cost of this solution is exponentially less expensive than that of brand-new road corridor acquisition. As with most issues the legislature tackles, there is a strain between the practical and the ideal. In this case, we can serve both to the benefit of all.