Jason Futch
reporter2.riverbendnews@gmail.com
City leaders from across North Florida, along with agencies within the region and local citizens, attended the Florida Department of Transportation’s 2025 North Florida Transportation Planning Summit, held at the Suwannee County Coliseum in Live Oak on Tuesday, April 29.
The event was initially planned to be held last year but was canceled three times due to the active hurricane season and its effects. The summit was held to showcase several projects FDOT plans to work on throughout the year and into next year while also providing information on grants and elaborating on emergency response throughout the region. Multiple representatives with FDOT shared that it was the largest-attended summit held since they have been having them.
“We appreciate all the partnerships and state agencies here today to present,” said David Tyler, Transportation Planning Manager for FDOT District 2. Suwannee County District 3 Commissioner Travis Land opened the event by welcoming everyone, and fellow commissioner for District 2, Maurice Perkins, delivered the invocation.
“I want to thank Secretary [Greg] Evans and FDOT for allowing Suwannee County to host this event,” Land said following the invocation. “It’s an honor, and there are so many dedicated professionals who are all focused on the health of North Florida’s transportation and infrastructure.”
Following Land’s comments, FDOT District 2 Secretary Greg Evans delivered a recap of the last two years of emergency response. Evans, who was appointed secretary for the district in February 2012, provided key information about the responses to Hurricane Idalia in 2023 and Hurricanes Debby and Helene.
“We have the greatest communities, and we also have the most rural communities out of any district within FDOT,” Evans said, noting that 14 of the 18 counties District 2 represents are considered rural. He also broke down numbers relating to hurricane debris cleanup. During the cleanup of Idalia, for example, Evans said that approximately eight million cubic yards of debris had been removed from North Florida highways. “One million cubic yards of debris could fill up Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville,” he said.
He also went into specifics regarding response times during Hurricane Debby, a significant rain event that dumped up to 20 inches of rain on the region, and Hurricane Helene, which created considerable debris impacts. During Hurricane Debby, at one stretch of Interstate 10, Evans said that the road had been completely flooded due to no draining systems being in place in the area. “Thanks to Shenandoah Dairy, they allowed us to pump the water into their field, allowing for traffic to be uninterrupted,” he said. Evans also shared photos of sinkholes that developed at Chiefland High School and at a section of U.S. Highway 19 near Fanning Springs.
During Helene, Evans said that FDOT was able to respond quickly to storm debris issues that occurred throughout state highways in Region 2. Using a cut-and-toss method, he said that within 14 and a half hours following Hurricane Helene, 99 percent of the 2,579 miles of state roads were cleared. The remaining one percent was due to power lines being involved, which was not safe for FDOT workers. He also shared that FDOT was able to help a peanut farm in Madison County move equipment safely during the storm and was able to support schools in Taylor, Madison and Dixie Counties with clean up. In total, 6.3 million cubic yards of debris have been removed from the region as of Tuesday, April 22.
Following Evan’s presentation, Edie Bouza with the Resilient Florida Program spoke about the Florida Department of Environmental Protection funded program, which was created in 2021 as part of the Always Ready Bill. The program assists with planning grants, implementation of grants, regional resilience entities, statewide data set and assessment and helps with the Florida Flood Hub.
Additionally, speakers throughout the event included Steven Carver, Regional Coordinator for the Office of Greenways and Trails through FDEP, Angie Odell with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Troy Roberts with Suwannee River Water Management District and Lecia Behenna with FloridaCommerce, who each spoke on grant opportunities.
Jeff Sheffield, Executive Director of the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, discussed the importance of smart technology in transportation planning.
Other speakers included Scott Koons, Executive Director of North Central Florida Regional Planning Council; Carrie Stanbridge, Maintenance Engineer for FDOT District 2; and Lola Butler and Melissa Morgan with FDOT District 2, who provided further information on emergency response plans through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The last event of the day was a breakout session, which functioned as an open house for guests to personally visit the speakers and learn more about the topics discussed, along with other organizations from the state and local levels.