LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — The people who live on Easton Drive have a love-hate relationship with the historic bricks that on their street.
“I do want it to remain, but I understand that with the flooding and everything, it can just get lifted and cause a lot of chaos,” said Chelsy Springs, a resident of the neighborhood near Lake Hollingsworth.
In mid-September, bricks were washing out. There was no hurricane. It was just a rainy day.
Jen Lay was trying to hold a party at home.
“It started raining heavily, and suddenly bricks just began popping up,” she explained. “They started surfacing all over, so no one could attend the event unless they went all the way around the lake because there was a huge hole right in the middle.”
Lay loves the brick road on Easton Drive.
Six years ago, she and her neighbors signed a petition to remove the asphalt and restore the historic brick.
“It adds charm to the Lake Hollingsworth area and helps property values, and it slows people down, which is the main thing we wanted,” she said.
After seeing what’s happened with the rain, she knows something needs to change.
“Honestly, I imagine it’s a significant expense for the city to fix it continually, and if it were paved again, we’d need something like 20 speed bumps down Easton,” she stated.
“We also understand that our priority is safety,” said Jamin Smith, digital content specialist with the city of Lakeland.
Smith said remediation efforts are underway.
“There was recently an area drainage study that was performed by WSP Engineering Firm,” he said.
There is also a design and feasibility study being conducted.
“We’re going to have it temporarily repaved with asphalt, and after the study data returns, we’ll evaluate if we can safely reinstall those bricks,” said Smith.
“I want that so badly. If they could figure out a way to get them to stay, that’s what I would prefer,” said Lay.
The exact timeline for the repaving project is unknown as the studies are conducted.
Work will need to be approved in the 2026 fiscal year budget, according to Smith.
Smith mentioned that any considerations regarding traffic speed once the asphalt is laid could be a component of the city’s Vision Zero initiative, which strives to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries from crashes in Lakeland by 2040.
