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Hudson-Area Drivers Complain About U.S. 19 Access
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Published: March 18, 2009
HUDSON - Residents who must drive every day along U.S. 19 near the Hudson Wal-Mart store hope the state 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 conference last week.
County Commission Chairman Jack Mariano outlined problems. Drivers on side streets such as Dipaola Drive have difficulty trying to turn onto U.S. 19 in this section north of S.R. 52.
Pasco County leaders suggested a traffic signal at Tower Drive as one option. However, officials from the District 7 office of Florida Department of Transportation said traffic counts and crash reports don't justify a signal in the vicinity.
A new signal also would be fairly close to the existing traffic signal at Beacon Woods Drive.
"Unless you have a (traffic) light, it's very difficult to go south" on U.S. 19 turning out of Country Club Estates, said Bipin Parikh, assistant county administrator for development services.
At one time Pasco County had studied an option of extending Beacon Woods Drive west of U.S. 19 and interconnecting it with existing streets, Parikh recalled. At the time, Home Depot had considered building a store on the west side of the highway directly across from the Wal-Mart.
But the concept for a Beacon Woods Drive extension was abandoned because of the expense, especially since 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, which allow drivers to crisscross U.S. 19 from any direction.
Left turns from side streets or driveways will no longer be possible at converted medians with directional turn lanes. That will hamper drivers even more from making left turns.
Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.
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