HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – The visitors on Lithia Pinecrest Road in Valrico has been described by way of some as a nightmare. It is an very important two-lane highway for folks touring thru South County.
According to Brian Bokor, space resident and supervisor of a well known neighborhood Facebook web page known as Bokors Corner, “All those communities that are on the outskirts of Fish Hawk need to utilize Lithia Pinecrest to be able to get to the Tampa area.”
The visitors can grow to be very difficult, in particular all over rush hours between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., and four p.m. to 6 p.m. In line with Hillsborough County, 25,000 to 30,000 other people commute alongside Lithia Pinecrest each day.
“Lithia Pinecrest Road is in the top four worst congested traffic areas in all of Hillsborough County,” stated county commissioner Michael Owen. “If there’s an accident or if there’s a car stalled, then you could be talking hours to get home.”
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Residents within the space were ready for years for the county to make enhancements alongside the roadway. However, the congestion has simplest higher as enlargement in South County has exploded.
Bokor explains that “Lithia Pinecrest is a very rural road. So when people say it’s congested, I don’t think people understand the congestion is not coming from commercial aspects; this congestion is coming from residential growth to the south area that this road just can’t support.”
Drivers are calling for officers to widen the street, which they imagine would alleviate a lot of the visitors all over morning and afternoon rush hours.
Owen agreed that assuaging congestion on Lithia Pinecrest has to be a concern, then again, it may not be a very simple repair. “Widening roads is a lot more expensive than paving them because we have to acquire the land,” he defined.
The greatest drawback is cash, or moderately, the loss of it. As the challenge is in large part unfunded. “So that price tag is about $206 million if you do the math. It’s a lot of money,” stated Owen.
But the county is now starting up the method to make enhancements with a Project Development & Environment find out about. On May 23, leaders will hang a public enter assembly on the Bloomingdale Library to speak about problems on Lithia Pinecrest Road. Online public enter starts May 9.
If the county is not able to get all of the cash required for the challenge to widen the roads, Owen stated they are going to have to be inventive to get a hold of an answer, similar to including roundabouts. “We can’t afford to just do nothing. We have got to come up with solutions as quickly as possible because people are suffering daily making this commute,” he stated.
Until then, citizens imagine that the ongoing enlargement within the space will simplest exacerbate the prevailing drawback. “It’s pretty much been established that Lithia Pinecrest is a failing road, and continuing to add developments to a failing road isn’t going to help,” stated Bokor.