The bridge over 38th Avenue N should make the Pinellas Trail much safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
By JON WILSON
Published December 10, 2003
St. Petersburg's Pinellas Trail overpasses
Location
Opened
Cost
Cross Bayou
November 1999
4.7-million
Park Street
January 2001
2.8-million
Pasadena-Central-First Avenue S
August 2001
2.29-million
38th Avenue N
Summer 2004
(projected)
2.2-million
ST. PETERSBURG - Angling southeast next to Tyrone Boulevard, the Pinellas Trail crosses some of the city's toughest traffic routes, including busy 38th Avenue N.
Florida Department of Transportation crews started work Monday on an overpass across 38th Avenue to make life safer for thousands of pedestrians, cyclists and skaters who use the trail.
The $2.2-million bridge is expected to be finished in late summer or early fall 2004, DOT officials say.
The trail will remain open at 38th Avenue during the project; crews are widening it slightly to accommodate users as work progresses.
Traffic on 38th Avenue will be diverted temporarily later. For the next few weeks, no detours are planned, officials say.
"Detours will be set up later on as construction gets in full swing," said Eddie Flewellen, senior DOT inspector.
It's not yet clear where they will be situated, officials said.
On Monday, surveying equipment, a few orange traffic cones and a couple of tractors suggested the start of the project.
Some of the heavier work, such as installing bridge-supporting drill shafts, will be done at night when the trail is closed.
Federal money is paying for the project. Johnson Brothers, a construction company whose headquarters are in Orlando, is doing the work.
The bridge will be the fourth to open during the past few years along the trail's southern reaches. Counting the 38th Avenue job, nearly $12-million will have been spent.
One bridge spanned Cross Bayou so that users would not have to negotiate Seminole Bridge and Bay Pines Boulevard. The others crossed busy traffic arteries.
The new bridge will neutralize a particularly dicey intersection. County planning figures show an average daily vehicle count of 42,380 at 38th Avenue and Tyrone Boulevard, ranking it among the city's busier junctions. The trail intersection lies just a few dozen yards east.
It's also near an access road to a busy commercial and retail strip containing a Wal-Mart. Trail travelers have to watch closely for vehicles going in and out. Likewise, motorists have to watch out for the travelers.
Since it opened in 1990, the trail has become nationally recognized as an urban "linear park." County officials estimate it attracts more than 1-million users each year.
Its major feature is a 34-mile strip from 34th Street S near Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg to U.S. 19 east of Tarpon Springs. A spur connects the trail to Honeymoon Island in Dunedin. Another section, unconnected to the main trail, runs parallel to East Lake Road east of Lake Tarpon in north Pinellas.
Plans call for eventual leasing of power easements from Progress Energy to create a 22-mile trail on the county's east side.
And there are other concepts, such as St. Petersburg's bicycle and pedestrian plan, that would provide links to trails. The vision is that in years to come, trails and linkages would allow users access to the entire county.
