Major Improvements In Plans For Highways

WESLEY CHAPEL - The Florida Department of Transportation plans to begin major renovations to Interstate 75 through Pasco County in 2009 and 2010 with more slated for after 2012 depending on funding, DOT officials said Thursday.

The renovations will widen the interstate to six lanes from Fowler Avenue in Hillsborough County to the Hernando County line to accommodate the ever-increasing number of cars flowing from subdivisions and shopping centers sprouting in fast-growing east Pasco, said Bob Clifford, head of planning for DOT's Tampa district.

The upcoming projects will happen at the County Road 54 (Wesley Chapel Boulevard) interchange and at the junction with Interstate 275 at the Pasco-Hillsborough county line.

The C.R. 54 project will replace aging bridges that carry the interstate over Wesley Chapel's primary bottleneck. DOT planners expect to be largely finished with designs for the new bridges next month.

The $43.1 million project could go to bid late next year with construction starting in early 2009, DOT officials said. County commissioners have committed $5 million in Penny for Pasco tax revenue for the project.

The two-year project will be coordinated with the county's plans to widen the roadway under I-75 to six lanes, DOT officials said. County crews are widening C.R. 54 just west of the interstate and plan to start widening State Road 54 east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard late next year.

While work is ongoing at C.R. 54 and I-75, DOT will begin rebuilding the I-275 junction a few miles to the south.

That work, slated to start in 2010, aims to reduce the amount of hasty lane changing drivers must do between the junction and State Road 56.

As part of that $48 million renovation, both highways will get a single-lane exit ramp to shunt traffic directly to S.R. 56. I-75 drivers aiming for S.R. 56 now must cross several lanes of I-275 quickly to reach the exit ramp.

Drivers who get on the new ramps won't be able to change their minds and jump back onto the main highway, DOT interstate program manager Adam Perez said.

The ramp project had been planned as part of a larger widening between S.R. 56 and Bruce B. Downs in Hillsborough County. That widening was shelved last year when legislators cut DOT's budget, Clifford said.

DOT planners continue to work on the design for the widening south of S.R. 56. They expect to have the plans mostly complete and the land bought by early next year - two factors that may help DOT find money to build the project in the next five years, Clifford said.