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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: September 3, 2008

People who have lived on the Suncoast long enough could well imagine the traffic apocalypse the intersection of U.S. 19 and S.R. 580, in northern Pinellas County between Dunedin and Countryside, would now be if the Florida Department of Transportation had not built a massive "flyover" interchange there years ago.

Since then, however, the cost of such projects has scuttled many planned U.S. 19 interchanges, including one in Tarpon Springs.

So motorists have only been able to worry as traffic back-ups at key U.S. 19 intersections in West Pasco - at S.R. 52, S.R. 54 and Ridge Road, for example - have progressively grown longer.

Now, however, DOT is back with a smaller-scale, and thus cheaper, plan for relieving congestion at major intersections with heavy traffic volumes in all four directions.

The plan debuted at a DOT workshop Thursday.

On the negative side, it could be a decade or two before DOT begins building a Tight Urban Diamond Interchange, or TUDI, as the lower-cost interchange is called, in West Pasco.

Still, if there are no TUDIs the U.S. 19 traffic in West Pasco could continue to grow worse, with little chance for relief.

So area Pasco motorists would no doubt welcome the relief - whenever it arrives.

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