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U.S. 19 Plan Omits Turn Lanes In New Port Richey

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: November 15, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Plans for continuous right-turn lanes along most of U.S. 19 in West Pasco left some county and city officials unhappy about a large gap in the New Port Richey area.

The project to add the turn lanes to the northbound and southbound portions of the six-lane highway could start construction in fall 2010, Florida Department of Transportation officials told the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization during its meeting Thursday.

The MPO, made up of the five County Commission members and representatives of Pasco cities, is the county's main transportation planning body.

The right-turn lane plan is one step to help reduce accidents along the state highway, DOT officials told the MPO. No right-turn lanes, however, are planned along U.S. 19 for several miles from about Gulf Drive north to near Ridge Road.

The added cost of acquiring right of way within this more heavily urbanized section of U.S. 19 is a main reason for omitting the right-turn lanes in the New Port Richey area, DOT says.

"It's a huge gap," New Port Richey Councilman Rob Marlowe, a representative of his city on the MPO, said of the area from which the turn lanes are being omitted. That's one of the busiest stretches of U.S. 19 that needs the turn lanes the most, he said.

But DOT and other MPO officials shrugged their shoulders because no funds will be available to pay for them even if turn lanes in the New Port Richey area are added to the DOT plan.

Without the New Port Richey-area lanes the project probably would cost in the neighborhood of $25 million, Bob Clifford, planning manager for DOT's District 7 office, in Tampa, told the MPO.

"It's going to be a difficult year" for funding road projects, Clifford commented.

"It's not going to get cheaper" to upgrade that section of U.S. 19, Marlowe countered.

However, "It doesn't look like we're going to have it anytime soon," Marlowe conceded.

The turn-lane project DOT officials envision only became possible from a financial standpoint because state engineers figured out how to build the extra lanes without having to buy more land in the areas south and north of New Port Richey, Clifford said. That solution, however, isn't feasible within the section between Gulf Drive and Ridge Road, he said.

The prospect of omitting the turn lanes in the New Port Richey leaves state Sen. Mike Fasano dismayed, his chief legislative aide, Greg Giordano, said when reached for comment after the MPO meeting.

According to Giordano, the newly re-elected Fasano "will do his best during his next four years to secure the funding to complete the remainder of the project."

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