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Highway Officials, Drivers Discuss U.S. 19 Woes, Fixes

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By CARL ORTH

The Suncoast News

Published: March 25, 2009

HUDSON - People who must drive U.S. 19 near the Hudson Wal-Mart hope the highway will take a turn for the better.

More than 20 residents representing Leisure Beach, Country Club Estates and Beacon Woods made suggestions to state and county officials at a recent conference.

Pasco County Commission Chairman Jack Mariano outlined problems, including that drivers on side streets, such as Dipaola Drive, have difficulty trying to turn onto U.S. 19 in the stretch north of State Road 52.

Pasco County leaders suggested a traffic signal at Tower Drive as an option.

However, officials from the District 7 office of the Florida Department of Transportation said traffic counts and crash reports don't justify a signal in the vicinity.

A new traffic light also would be fairly close to the existing signal at Beacon Woods Drive.

Unless there is a traffic light, it is difficult to go south on U.S. 19 from Country Club Estates, said Bipin Parikh, assistant county administrator for development services.

The DOT, studying the issue, doesn't have a timetable for a decision.

Pasco County had studied extending Beacon Woods Drive west of U.S. 19 and connecting it with existing streets, Parikh said. But the concept was abandoned because of the expense, especially because a bridge would have been necessary in one area.

Complicating matters is a project to rebuild medians on U.S. 19 in the area. Construction could start in 2010 to reconfigure the medians. Directional turn lanes, called channelization, will replace the open medians that allow drivers to crisscross U.S. 19 from any direction.

Left turns from side streets or driveways no longer will be possible at converted medians with directional turn lanes. That will hamper drivers even more in making left turns.

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