Pensacola hires SCAPE to do final review of long-awaited 'Hashtag" project
A long-awaited project to make Pensacola's waterfront more pedestrian-friendly is getting a review by the original designers.
The Pensacola Community Redevelopment Agency approved an amended contract with SCAPE Landscape Architecture earlier this week to pay $7,500 for a final review of the city's plans for the "Hashtag Waterfront Connector" project on Main Street.
While the amount is small, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said it was something he wanted to see done before moving forward with a project that has been five years in the making.
"It truly is kind of a quality control check," Reeves said Tuesday.
The project is being funded out of the CRA and has a budget of $4.1 million, according to city spokesperson Dominique Epps. The budget was $6.1 million up until October, when the CRA transferred $2 million from the Hashtag project to the Bruce Beach Park project.
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SCAPE developed the original "Hashtag Waterfront Connector" as part of a CivicCon effort to propose a catalytic project along with Bruce Beach to activate the city's waterfront for pedestrian use. The city took on the two projects and hired its engineers with Dewberry to design the Hashtag project. SCAPE was also hired by the city to advise on the project.
The project was called the "Hashtag" because of the shape created by the streets involved in the project of Palafox, Main, Jefferson and Cedar streets.
Over the years, as construction costs have increased, features have been removed or redesigned to reduce the project's cost.
The city released plans last year that showed the project focus was on Main Street to narrow driving lanes along the street, create more space for pedestrians, and build Pensacola's first protected bike lane.
Reeves said with all the changes on the project, he wanted SCAPE to have a final look to ensure it still aligns with the original 2018 vision.
"That gives me enough assurance that for all the time and money and public input, and all of the things that were invested originally in 2018, to ensure that the spirit of that has not been lost through good, diligent work and value engineering," Reeves said.
Despite the increase in construction cost over the years, Reeves said he's confident the city still has enough funding to move forward on the project.
"We do believe that we can do that," Reeves said.
Reeves said the city is on the lookout for more funding opportunities like the $200 million recently approved by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday for the Florida SUN Trail.
The SUN Trail is a statewide plan to create a network of non-motorized trails for pedestrians and bicycles. The planned route goes through downtown Pensacola but is currently marked on maps as an "unfunded gap" in the SUN Trail network.
Reeves said with the new law, he believes the Hashtag project aligns with the goals of the SUN Trail.
"We have to move forward with the money that we have right now," Reeves said. "We can't count on 'what ifs,' but that is an interesting thing that we're going to be tracking."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: 'Hashtag" project in Pensacola to get final review by SCAPE
