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U.S. 19 Plan For Pasco Unveiled At Workshop

From Florida DOT

Elevated lanes are among long-range options for four interchanges on U.S. 19 at S.R. 54, Ridge road, S.R. 52 and County Line Road, as this Florida Department of Transportation diagram shows.

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: August 29, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - State transportation officials last night wanted to talk about their long-range vision for U.S. 19: constructing elevated interchanges at some of its most congested intersections in 10 to 20 years.

But area residents who attend a Florida Department of Transportation workshop Thursday night seemed to be more interested in talking about projects some two years away for continuous right turn lanes and redesigned medians.

The early concept for the elevated lanes for U.S. 19 interchanges at S.R. 54 Ridge Road, S.R. 52 and County Line Road were unveiled Thursday night. Officials from DOT's District 7 Office, in Tampa, put on the open house.

DOT calls the latest proposal "Recommended Alternative Modified Tight Urban Diamond Interchange, or TUDI. There's no funding on the horizon yet to build the concept, DOT officials noted.

The concept basically boils down to mini-overpasses instead of the full-fledged "flyover" overpasses such as the one at U.S. 19 and S.R. 580, in the Dunedin-Countryside area. The Pasco proposal would have the elevated lanes hanging over turn lanes below to save space and cost.

Talk about some form of overpasses on U.S. 19 isn't new. Various concepts have been knocking around the past decade or so. Pasco residents have looked with envy on Pinellas County and its U.S. 19 overpasses.

Most past proposals for Pasco have been rejected as too expensive, especially after some Pinellas projects soared in cost because of land acquisition.

One of the proposed Pinellas flyovers that ended up on the planning scrap heap would have been built at the intersection of U.S. 19 and Tarpon Avenue-Keystone Road, in Tarpon Springs.

DOT might not have to buy land for the four elevated interchanges envisioned for Pasco County. That could keep a lid on costs. The existing right of way at Ridge Road is 150 feet while the other three intersections have 200 feet.

Still, residents devoted most of their questions about the continuous right turn lanes and reconstructed medians. Those projects could start by 2010.

The continuous right turn lanes would straddle both directions of U.S. 19.

But the turn lanes would vanish along a stretch of the state highway within the city of New Port Richey, Councilman Rob Marlowe complained. DOT officials told him the state would have to buy land to make room for the turn lanes within the city limits, adding great expense to the project.

The plan to rebuild U.S. 19 medians irritated residents such as Carol Kinnard. She often drives across the highway into the median at Sunset Road and then turns left, into U.S. 19's southbound lanes. The DOT median makeover plan would bar this maneuver.

DOT engineers want to close off open, crossover medians. About half of all accidents along U.S. 19 can be attributed to traffic crossing all six lanes of the highway from side streets or parking lots, they say.

The new medians would be "channelized," which means turn lanes would be built within the medians. The design would prevent traffic from traveling across U.S. 19 lanes of traffic.

Kinnard complained that she would have to turn right from Sunset Road onto northbound U.S. 19, maneuver into one of the channelized median and then make a U-turn onto southbound U.S. 19.

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