The yearlong project on 3 miles running from Clearwater to Dunedin will be done mostly at night.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published January 3, 2004
Alt. U.S. 19's most scenic drive is about to undergo a yearlong makeover.
Work crews are scheduled to start Monday on a $3.1-million project to resurface the road from Drew Street in Clearwater to Monroe Street in Dunedin.
Florida Department of Transportation officials say the work will improve safety and traffic flow. The road is known as Fort Harrison Avenue and, farther north, where it overlooks the Intracoastal Waterway, as Edgewater Drive.
The stretch of Alt. 19 to be repaved covers a little more than 3 miles and is a major connector between Clearwater, Dunedin and North Pinellas.
It carries more than 21,000 cars and trucks a day, according to the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization. Near downtown Dunedin it carries more than 27,600 cars a day.
Road contractor APAC-Florida will remove and replace the asphalt and make drainage improvements.
New traffic signals also will be hung from sturdy masts at Seminole Street, Sunset Point Road and the intersection of Fairmont Street and Myrtle Avenue. Officials learned during Hurricane Andrew that the masts withstand high winds better than wires.
"They're stronger," DOT spokeswoman Marian Scorza said of the masts. "When you have a hurricane, the span wires have a tendency to come down (so) . . . within 10 miles of the coast, when we have to replace things, we'll do mast arms."
First, road crews will do underground work on the north and south ends of the project. That is expected to require some lane closures and occasional detours. More lane closures will follow as resurfacing begins. Most work will be done between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. The project is scheduled to be finished in early 2005.
Unlike another recent repaving job to the south, this project includes no reconfiguration of the lanes on Alt. 19, Scorza said.
Last year, the DOT did a $5.4-million project to resurface Fort Harrison from West Bay Drive to Drew Street. At the request of the city of Clearwater, state officials striped the new pavement from Belleview Boulevard to Cleveland Street to reduce four lanes of traffic to three - one northbound, one southbound and a center left-turn-only lane. From Cleveland north to Drew Street, Fort Harrison became one lane in each direction, with a strip of parking spaces on the east side of the street.
The lane changes are intended to coincide with the opening of the new Memorial Causeway bridge and are aimed at reducing congestion and accidents.
