Pinellas to finish sidewalks on U.S. 19

Less than half of the busy highway has sidewalks now, but planners intend to spend $15.2-million to fill in the gaps.

By LISA GREENE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 12, 2002

Until now, there has been a glaring safety hazard for walkers on U.S. 19: There's nowhere to walk.

Less than half of the deadly highway has sidewalks.

But that's about to change. Pinellas County's transportation planning board this week set aside $15.2-million of federal money to build nearly 32 miles of sidewalks. That's enough to fill in 72 gaps in the highway's existing sidewalks and means U.S. 19 will have sidewalks on both sides for its entire length in the county.

John Doglione, a member of the planning board and a Dunedin commissioner, said he hopes the sidewalks will save lives.

"Folks have a tendency, when there are no sidewalks, to walk right on the edge of the road," he said.

From 1995 through 2001, 43 pedestrians and six bicyclists died on U.S. 19 in Pinellas.

Brian Smith is director of the planning board, the Metropolitan Planning Organization. He pointed to sidewalks as one of the key recommendations made by the U.S. 19 Task Force, which studied ways to make the road safer.

"If you're a pedestrian in that corridor, there was no provision for you in many places," Smith said. "This alleviates that, and you can be on a sidewalk the whole time."

Most of the missing sidewalks are in North Pinellas, but there also are gaps farther south. There's no sidewalk for several blocks north of 38th Avenue N, or for several blocks north of Park Boulevard.

U.S. 19 is 33 miles long in Pinellas, so it could have 66 miles of sidewalks. But there are only 30 miles of sidewalks now, Smith said. Money already had been set aside to build sidewalks on 4 miles from Tarpon Avenue north to the county line, and at various planned overpasses.

But until Wednesday, there was no money set aside for the rest.

The $15-million that the MPO decided to use on sidewalk construction comes from a federal grant secured by U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, and Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs. The grant originally was announced at $25-million, but Pinellas will get about $24.2-million, Smith said.

The work should start by October. Officials from the Florida Department of Transportation couldn't say Thursday exactly when the work will be complete. Smith estimated it will take a year to 18 months. On each segment, one contractor will design and build the project to make the work go faster, Smith said.

The MPO decided to spend another $3-million for a pedestrian overpass between Drew Street and Coachman Road and $1.2-million to put median dividers at 50th Avenue N, 56th Avenue N, and nine places between Whitney Road and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

Another $4.8-million will go to make "intelligent transportation system" improvements. Those improvements include such items as electronic message signs to tell drivers about delays and alternate routes.

But millions of dollars worth of similar safety improvements on the highway remain without funding, Smith said.

And Doglione said just sidewalks won't be enough. Highway officials also will need to do a public safety campaign to encourage people not to jaywalk, he said.

"I've seen people crossing U.S. 19 50 yards from a signalized intersection, and it absolutely baffles me why they put themselves in that kind of jeopardy," Doglione said. "We've got to go in and remind folks."

Missing sidewalks along U.S. 19

Within these segments, several locations already have sidewalks. But transportation planners have marked these as the areas along U.S. 19 with the most missing sidewalks:

38th Avenue N to 54th Avenue N.

Park Boulevard to north of 49th Street N.

Haines Bayshore Road to Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

State Road 580 to Tarpon Avenue.

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