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Round-The-Clock Work To Begin On S.R. 56

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - County officials today cleared the builders of State Road 56 to work round-the-clock as they rush to finish the first leg of the road in time for the Oct. 30 opening of the Shops at Wiregrass mall.
County Administrator John Gallagher and the Development Review Committee OK'd a 24-hour-a-day schedule for a 10-day period starting in mid-September. Crews will be laying asphalt for the six-lane road, said Jim Richardson, vice president of Forest City Enterprises, one of the companies involved in the road project.
Forest City is overseeing the section of S.R. 56 that passes in front of its 800,000-square-foot outdoor shopping plaza.
The rest of the project is under the control of Locust Branch LLC and the Meadow Pointe IV Community Development District. Plans call for extending the highway across Wiregrass Ranch to Mansfield Boulevard by next spring and to Meadow Pointe Boulevard by early 2010.
The 24-hour work schedule was approved with one caveat: Dump truck drivers are banned from letting their tailgates bang after they dump their load.
Truck drivers do that to shake loose dirt left behind in the truck bed, but DRC members were concerned the noise would travel far enough at night to disturb residents of Williamsburg, the subdivision south of the construction site.
The road builders will have to alter their plans slightly in the wake of a Department of Transportation ruling this week that allowed a left turn from S.R. 56 into the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza, which is south of the highway.
Along with the left turn, DOT engineers agreed to give Shoppes at New Tampa two new entrances off S.R. 56. All three entrances will be added early next year just before the highway opens to the public, according to the Richardson.
The first entrance will allow right-in only access from the highway just in front of the plaza's stores. The second will allow right-in and right-out at the back corner of the plaza. That access was intended for tractor-trailers and other delivery trucks trying to reach the plaza's loading docks.
The access points were requested by Publix, the plaza's anchor tenant. The Lakeland-based grocery chain objected to DOT plans that would have blocked westbound drivers from turning left into the plaza.
Publix's objections to changes in the plaza's access points nearly crippled the road, which county leaders say is vital to relieving traffic congestion and promoting growth in Wesley Chapel.
Publix withdrew its objects last week after a closed-door meeting with the road builders and the DOT.