Volume 17 Issue 16
WESLEY CHAPEL Inside:
Back To School, Wesley Chapel!
August 7, 2009
NEWS
See pages 14-15!
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S.R. 56 Extension Project Set To Open By End Of August!
NEIGHBORHOOD MAGAZINE!
Swine Flu Cases In Wesley Chapel, Student A Way To Get Fit For Life, Our August Entertainment Calendar, Neighborhood Injured In Bus Accident Awarded $1.6 Nibbles, A Life Left (Largely) Unchanged Million, A Wesley Chapel Chamber Of & Much More! Commerce Update & Back-To-School!
See pages 3-18!
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S.R. 54 Tie-In
The plans for S.R. 56 also ties in with the county’s plan for widening S.R. 54 between I-75 and Curley Rd. Over the summer, the county has been negotiating with property owners along
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the roadway with skid-resistant asphalt, add striping and signage, and it’s ready to be opened to traffic, Widman says. “Our game plan is to get all this done before school starts, so you might see them out there working at night,” he says. “But, everything is finally coming together, and the name of the game is to hurry up and get it open.” When it first opens, there won’t be a traffic signal at the The long-awaited eastward extension of S.R. 56 (in blue), should open to Mansfield Blvd. by the S.R. 56/Mansfield Blvd. end of this month. intersection, Widman says, because, until the extension is S.R. 54 to acquire the right-of-way opened further eastward, drivers will needed for that project, which will see only be able to turn left onto Mansfield the perpetually congested thoroughfare from S.R. 56 or right onto S.R. 56 widened from two lanes to six. Widman from Mansfield. The design does call says that the county has spent more for a signal at the intersection, but Wid- than $50 million for more than 100 man says the county will conduct traffic parcels of land along the roadway, and counts once the roadway is opened to that there is just one more piece left to determine when a signal is necessary. acquire before the county can move The same goes for a planned signal forward with the project. Pasco officials at the main entrance to the Shops at are working to come to an agreement Wiregrass, which also is included in the with that landowner, and if a settlement overall design but has not yet been can’t be reached, then the county will built because the volume of traffic have to resort to legal measures to going into and coming out of the mall acquire the property, which would has not warranted it yet. result in a months-long delay for breakThe overall road plan for the area ing ground on the S.R. 54 widening. calls for S.R. 56 to eventually be “We’re trying desperately to work extended all the way to U.S. Hwy. 301 it out,” Widman says, “and once we get south of Zephyrhills. That won’t hapthat settled, we’ll be ready to compen any time soon, but workers are mence with the bidding phase.” already paving the stretch of the roadOnce the county does let the projway between Mansfield Blvd. and ect out for bid, Widman says Pasco will Meadow Pointe Blvd., and Widman take a new approach by asking for difsays that part of the project should be ferent bids that include different schedfinished by December, or possibly even ules for completion of the project. sometime sooner. “That will allow the (Pasco) Board See “S.R. 56” on page 5. PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID TAMPA FL PERMIT 2801
According to one Pasco County official, the issues that have been holding up the opening of S.R. 56 between Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (BBD, aka C.R. 581) and Mansfield Blvd. in the Meadow Pointe subdivision have been resolved, and the county’s “game plan” is to have that part of the extension open by the start of the new school year, which begins in Pasco County on Monday, August 24. In addition, the second phase of the extension project, between Mansfield Blvd. and Meadow Pointe Blvd., could be open as early as December. Last week, we talked at length to Pasco County’s Engineering Services director Jim Widman, who told us that the project is once again “moving along very, very well,” after being delayed while officials from the county and the Tampa Electric Co. (TECO) worked to resolve the issue of who should pay for the relocation of the utility poles at the BBD/S.R. 56 intersection. Widman said the power company finally agreed to move the poles, and now that that has been completed, there are just a few more finishing touches that need to be done before the roadway can be opened up to traffic between BBD and Mansfield Blvd. “The road is essentially connected,” Widman said. However, Widman adds that workers still have to add two eastbound lanes to S.R. 56 on the western side of the
intersection, which, when it is completed, will have a total of three left-turn lanes (turning onto northbound BBD), three through lanes (continuing east on S.R. 56) and two right-turn lanes (heading south on BBD). Currently, there are only two left-turn lanes, two through lanes and two right-turn lanes, so Widman says that one lane will be added to the inside of the roadway and the other on the outside. That work is now under way. There also will be another eastbound lane added to S.R. 56 on the east side of the intersection. That lane will be built along the southernmost edge of the roadway, and will include a pair of curb cuts to allow access to the Publix-anchored Shoppes of New Tampa at Wesley Chapel shopping plaza. The plan has always been to make S.R. 56 six lanes wide where it passes by that plaza and the Shops at Wiregrass mall, before tapering down to four lanes east of Mansfield Blvd. There currently are only five lanes on that side of the intersection, however, because the owners of the plaza objected to the original plan, which included only one entrance from S.R. 56 into their plaza. Now, they have agreed to build the lane themselves, Widman says, and will not only build two entrances from the eastbound lanes, but also a left-turn lane from westbound S.R. 56 into the plaza. “That will allow us to add the third through lane on that side,” Widman says. Then, all that’s left is to re-surface
Dated Material Please Rush!
By Michael Smith
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