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Sidewalk planned for stretch of Park Street
By MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN SEMINOLE -- The news that a sidewalk is coming soon to a stretch of Park Street couldn't have come at a better time, considering the Tampa Bay area is ranked the second most dangerous place for pedestrians in the nation. Realizing pedestrians are at risk, the county has reversed a decision that delayed installing a sidewalk on the east side of Park north of Tyrone Boulevard until the road is widened in 2007. County officials say workers should begin pouring cement in January. The sidewalk will run from 46th Avenue N to 54th Avenue N, a potential danger zone for people like Billie Jo Claxton, who regularly walk the route. On Friday morning, Claxton pushed a grocery cart along the busy county road. She had bought groceries at the Publix in the Eagles Park shopping center on Park Street north of 54th Avenue. Claxton, 35, says she does what she can to avoid walking along the street and near the ditches that line it. She cuts across a strip center's parking lot, then moves along a well-worn path on a grassy area. "I do this all the time," said Claxton, who lives on 49th Avenue and relies on her feet, friends or buses for transportation. The rankings, released last week by the nonprofit Surface Transportation Policy Project in Washington, D.C., are based on the number of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 people. The Tampa Bay area topped the list for the past four years. This year it fell to second, behind Orlando. Ray Ott, a former Kenneth City council member who lives at a condominium complex at 6000 Park St., says he never walks the route but occasionally rides his bike on it to get to the Pinellas Trail at Tyrone Boulevard. He says he's tired of seeing people, mostly seniors, walking in such unsafe conditions to get to stores and restaurants in the area. "It's terrible for somebody to have to do that," said Ott, 67. Ott recently showed Pinellas County Commissioner John Morroni the area of Park Street that is lacking a sidewalk. While Morroni was there, he saw a woman driving her motorized wheelchair across the grassy terrain. The $109,000 project is scheduled to last nearly three months, said Jim Collins, a senior engineer with the county's Transportation Engineering Division. The county had to get a permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District so workers can fill in the ditches and build the sidewalk over them. The county will begin widening County Road 695, called Park Street and Starkey Road in south Pinellas, in 2007. The $18-million project will add two more lanes to the four-lane roadway, create larger median openings and add a 4-foot bike lane and a 5-foot sidewalk. The project is part of the county's 2020 Long Range Transportation Plan. Officials say about 30,000 cars travel daily on the 5-mile section of Park Street and Starkey Road. By 2020, another 8,000 motorists are expected to use the corridor.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
