General manager
Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation told Bradford County leaders that the Florida Department of Transportation plans to build a pedestrian bridge over U.S. 301 between Starke and Hampton Lake as part of the Palatka-to-Lake Butler State Trail.
Officials with the Mike Rosses Gold Head Branch State Park, the trail, and the environmental agency held a public hearing at the Bradford County Courthouse to discuss the department’s plans to upgrade the trail. County commissioners Danny Riddick and Diane Andrews, County Manager Scott Kornegay, and Sheriff’s Office Major George L. Konkel Jr. attended the meeting.
Gold Head Park Manager Charlie Brown said FDOT’s next two projects for the trail are a pedestrian bridge over U.S. 301 and a bridge over New River, connecting the Bradford and Union County portions of the paved walkway.
Andrews added that in 2021 or 2022, the state road agency sent commissioners several designs for the walkway spanning 301. The commission chair said the panel selected its preferred design, “and we sent it into them, but that was the last we ever heard about it.”
Brown added that the pedestrian crossing now under construction at State Road 100 is holding up the opening of the access from the state highway to the west.
Motor vehicles plague trail
The parks officials also said that the biggest problem facing the trail in Bradford County is unauthorized motor vehicles using the walking and bike path.
Park Services Specialist Carlos Rosado, who maintains the trail between Putnam and Union Counties, reported that although motorized vehicles are prohibited from the trail, four-wheelers, golf carts, and motorcycles regularly trespass on the paved surface, which runs through southern Bradford County, in the Theressa and Hampton areas. Konkel said he planned to tour the trail and increase patrols on it. He also suggested that state officials use cameras to discourage the unlawful behavior.
