WESLEY CHAPEL
Volume 28
Inside:
Issue 24
More New Dining Options Now Open In Wesley Chapel!
NEWS
See pages 30-35!
November 24, 2020
RUNNING BEHIND
Photo by Charmaine George
By John C. Cotey John@NTNeighborhoodNews.com
Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) chairman Mike Moore has always taken great pride in his efforts to expedite the construction of the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) at the busy junction of I-75 and S.R. 56. With help from state legislators, what was originally scheduled for a 2024
completion was moved up and expected to be finished by the fall of 2021. However, that date is now very much in question, which has riled Moore, who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel. “It’s very, very disappointing,” he says. Armed with letters from constituents and his own daily experience driving through the congestion at the under-construction interchange, Moore is disappointed to hear that the project
— originally expected to cost $18.5 million but now carrying a $33-million price tag — could now drag on until the spring of 2022 or even later. Which is why, when Moore drives by the project now and sees workers, well, not working, it makes him seethe. His frustration was on full display at a BCC meeting last month, when Moore delivered a blistering attack on the company, D.A.B. Constructors, Inc., in charge of the project.
Moore said he recently drove through the interchange and took pictures of the general malaise happening. He said he saw two workers standing next to a truck doing nothing, and a second group of construction workers standing on a hill. “On a project of that magnitude, those are the only people I saw working on a Monday, a sunny Monday, at 1:30 See “DDI” on page 4!