A state representative from Gainesville recently got some answers from the state Department of Transportation (GDOT) regarding its controversial plans to reconstruct the historie thoroughfare.
“As you may know, in recent years, several of the trees have fallen during storm events and another was removed due to it leaning and a danger of it falling,” Matt Dubnik wrote in his response to a question from 97.5 Glory FM’s Mike Wofford.
Dubnik said GDOT told him the issue of falling trees is an obvious safety concern with the large trees falling into the roadway as well as an impact to traffic due to road closures since clean up requires large, specialized equipment to handle trees that size.
“My understanding,” Dubnik continued, “is that an independent arborist has surveyed the trees along Green Street and has determined that they are approaching the end of their typical life span, which is attributing to this.”
GDOT is proposing to re-plant new trees along the street that can be enjoyed “for years to come.”
Meanwhile, a Save Green Street petition continues to circulate online and as of 6:00 Thursday morning 2,031 people had signed it: Petition · Save Green Street in Gainesville – Gainesville, United States · Change.org