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S.R. 54 Widening Leaps To 8th Spot

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Drivers on State Road 54 could get relief sooner than planned after county officials on Thursday put widening the highway east of Curley Road near the top of the county's list of priority road projects.

At the urging of county Commissioner Ted Schrader, members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization - the county agency that oversees road, transit and air travel in Pasco - bumped the widening project to No. 8 on the priority list. It had been No. 26.

The shift, which will become official in September, will put the chronically congested road on the radar of the state Department of Transportation when it gives out money for improvements, county officials said.

The county has budgeted $3 million for preliminary engineering on the road next year and $8 million to begin buying rights of way in 2012 and 2013. Construction would begin after 2013, according to the plan.

An average of 24,500 cars a day use S.R. 54 between Curley and Morris Bridge Road. That's about 40 percent less than the 40,000 cars a day that use the road between Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Curley.

Thursday's change doesn't mean construction east of Curley will start before 2013, but it could as other projects drop off the priority list and the S.R. 54 widening moves up, county officials said.

Schrader, who sits on the MPO with other commissioners and four city mayors, said state Rep. Will Weatherford's upcoming chairmanship of the House transportation committee gives Pasco a leg up on landing state funding for important road projects.

It also helps that Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has firsthand experience with S.R. 54's problems, Schrader said.

Shifting S.R. 54 higher bumps down other projects, including the interchange of the Suncoast Parkway and the planned-but-unapproved extension of Ridge Road from Moon Lake Road to U.S. 41, which had been No. 8.

The county has yet to persuade federal regulators to let it fill wetlands in central Pasco to build the road.

"We want to make sure road projects we put on this list can get done," Schrader said.

The new priority list, which won approval Thursday, is dominated by projects at the heart of Pasco's fastest-growing community. The list includes replacing the Interstate 75 overpass at County Road 54 and widening S.R. 54 between Bruce B. Downs and Curley.

The overpass project will start this fall. The road widening will start early next year.

Also at Thursday's meeting, MPO members approved a new plan for developing the county's transit system between now and 2018.

That plan calls for adding routes and shortening the wait between buses. It also predicts the addition of a cross-county bus route following S.R. 54 by 2011 and a circulator route in Land O' Lakes by 2015.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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