What’s next for the red light in Thomasville, Velda Dairy Roads

• After passing through City Hall in 2018, Thomasville Road and Velda Dairy Road will receive a traffic light.
• Surveyors were in the area where Velda Dairy Road will be extended on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Watch the video to hear from one neighbor who is excited about the change and another who is worried about what lies ahead.

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE SHOW:

City leaders have officially approved a plan to extend Velda Dairy Road onto Thomasville Road.

David West lives in the neighborhood.

He tells me he’s been following the changes here at the corner of Ox Bottom Road and Thomasville Road.

I’ve been following the progress here for months. Check out my previous report below:

Construction on Thomasville Rd, Velda Dairy leaves people wondering what’s to come

Now a change is coming to that road that he says will worsen traffic in his Killearn Estates neighborhood.

“This will provide an alternative route for people coming from Ox Bottom, who will be going straight through this fire and will now be in Kerry Forrest,” West said.

He was talking about a project to extend Velda Dairy Road across Thomasville Road to connect to Ox Bottom.

After 6 years of discussions on the project, the City of Tallahassee has officially moved forward with design and permitting the change.

It was originally proposed by a developer who planned commercial and residential space at the corner of Ox Bottom Road and Thomasville Road.

It will add a traffic light in the area within half a mile of the Kerry Forrest Parkway traffic light.

“People coming from Bannerman to work downtown now have to go through another red light,” West said.

City staff wrote in documents from March that the change is intended to “deflect attention away from the overcapacity intersection of Thomasville Road and Kerry Forrest Parkway, which will help relieve congestion in the area.”

I looked at data from the Leon County Sheriff’s Office which shows there have been over 100 crashes at this intersection and 6 at Thomasville and Velda Dairy from July 2023 to present.

Neighbors like Steve Winn said they hope the change will reduce those numbers.

“When you get to Thomasville Road, it’s extremely dangerous. You can only turn right right now,” Winn said.

I spoke to him when the project was presented to the committee in March.

He said he was pleased to see progress being made.

“The sooner the better,” Winn said.

West said he didn’t think things would turn out that way.

“We’re looking at putting a red light at the bottom of a hill, so people coming from the south in the morning to go to work, they’re suddenly going to stop at a red light, which is going to cause them to come to an abrupt stop,” West said.

Permits for the project are expected to be completed in November, allowing work to begin before April 15.