Winter Garden approves dump-truck ban on Marsh Road

Following a resolution passed by Winter Garden commissioners, certain heavy vehicles — including dump trucks — soon will be prohibited from using a portion of Marsh Road.

The action comes a month after more than a dozen residents from the Waterside, Twin Waters and Sanctuary at Twin Waters — all communities along the road — showed up at a Jan. 14 City Commission meeting to express concerns with dump truck traffic.

Residents said trucks start populating the road in the early-morning hours and go all day — some in convoys of 20 to 30. They added the trucks are loud, often speed and damage the road.

After a month of research and analysis by multiple parties, during the Feb. 11 City Commission meeting, City Manager Mike Bollhoefer presented Resolution 21-03, which establishes vehicle classification and weight limitations on a certain portion of Marsh Road from the Lake County border to Williams Road, and prohibits Class 6 through 13 vehicles from using it and adopts certain vehicle-weight limitations. This is in accordance with Florida Statute 316.555, which gives municipalities the power to regulate traffic in their jurisdiction. 

“We hired Luke Transportation (Engineering Consultants) — which does a lot of analysis for us — to determine the speeds and weights of vehicles, and we also hired Tierra to do an analysis of what these trucks and vehicles are doing to the roads,” Bollhoefer said. “On the amount of trucks going out there, there are eastbound — on average amount — 683 trucks eastbound and 749 westbound for a total of 1,432 trucks for an average daily of trucks using the road.”

Bollhoefer said analyses showed 85% of the trucks or heavy vehicles using the road are exceeding the 35 mph speed limit, as are 85% of all vehicles on it. One dump truck was clocked speeding at 95 mph.

“I’ve been driving Marsh Road for the last 10 years … and if you’ve got one of those trucks behind you, you’re going to speed,” Commissioner Bob Buchanan said.

Bollhoefer said according to Tierra, the Marsh Road system is not designed for trucks.

“Our recommendation would be to follow the advice of these experts to … not allow trucks on the road from the Lake County border to right before you get to Williams Road,” Bollhoefer said. “We believe that will eliminate 90% or more of the trucks that are coming from sand mines and such. That will still allow trucks to come from the east heading west to get to any construction and such. It will really focus on getting rid of all the sand-mine trucks that use that road as a highway to move sand.”

City Attorney Kurt Ardaman said the firms hired confirmed the number of heavy trucks on Marsh Road in the affected segment accounts for 11.3% of the total traffic volume. The typical heavy-truck loads for a road is about 2%; State Road 50 is just more than 4%, he said.

“Hartwood Marsh Road has a hugely disproportionate, large number of dump trucks and heavy vehicles that are on a road that’s not designed to accommodate those,” Ardaman said. “It’s created ruts (and) it creates safety concerns with the intersections. … In fact, there’s been observed by the police chief trucks lined up 20 to 30, right behind one another, just coming right up through there in excess speeds of 48 mph — on average — in a 35 mph-posted speed limit.”

With commissioners’ adoption of the resolution, staff now has the authority to work through the mechanics of enforcement. For the first couple of weeks, Bollhoefer said, there will be warning lights in place to give drivers time to make plans for alternate routes. Ticket-writing will come next.

It is expected the trucks will shift to using S.R. 50 instead, Bollhoefer said.

Maritza Saint-Hilaire, a resident of Sanctuary at Twin Waters, thanked city staff and commissioners for working quickly to find a solution.

“I did want to just go ahead and have this opportunity to thank you guys … for listening to the voices of the citizens of Winter Garden, and for working so quickly and diligently to put things in motion to alleviate the dump-truck situation,” Saint-Hilaire said. “We definitely appreciate it, and it 100% confirms that this is an amazing city to live in.”