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Once again, the state roadies have felt your pain.
In mid December, I described a reader's concerns about the signs on southbound Interstate 275 on the approach to the Pinellas Bayway and 54th Avenue S.
About a mile north of the exit, signs tell motorists headed for the Bayway to take the right lane, and motorists who want 54th Avenue to take the center.
However, when you actually get to the exit, those bound for 54th Avenue must suddenly switch to the right lane, which then splits, the right side going to the Bayway and the left side going to 54th Avenue.
It would be simpler, I suggested, if motorists bound for 54th Avenue S were directed to the right lane in the first place.
The roadies tell me they looked at the situation and agree. If they haven't already, their plan is to overlay and blot out the arrow that points 54th Avenue motorists to the center lane. The overlay will tell them, instead, to take Exit 17. That should allay some confusion.
It would be nice if the Bayway/St. Pete Beach sign also could say 54th Avenue. But the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD (MutCud, a distant relative of Swiftmud?), strictly limits destinations to two per sign. Since the bulk of people using Exit 17 want directions to the Bayway and the beach, that fills up the sign, and 54th Avenue must continue to stand alone, though clarified.
From the Best News of the Week Department.
That horrible, horrible railroad crossing on 62nd Avenue N just west of 49th Street in Pinellas Park has been fixed and was scheduled to reopen on Friday. I don't know how I'm going to continue to write this column without that crossing to complain about.
But I'll muddle through, somehow.
While one Eyeball Jiggler of the Week in Pinellas Park has been fixed, another has been called to our attention. It's a stone's throw west of U.S. 19 on Park Boulevard. It bedevils those trying to cross Park southbound on 43rd Street N, next to the Home Depot.
The road dips sharply and then rises quickly. If someone is driving at speeds exceeding 3 miles an hour, there is serious danger of bottoming out.
This is caused, like so many other EJWs in the area, by a dip for drainage at the foot of 43rd Street and the crowning of Park Boulevard, and it will last until, during some future repaving project, the Park roadway is ground down to get rid of the crown.
That's such a high-traffic area that motorists shouldn't be trying to zip across Park, anyway. But be warned to take a little extra care there.
And we thank Gerald Tinsley for the tip.
In that same area, we noted several weeks ago that the left-turn arrow from southbound U.S. 19 onto Gandy Boulevard wasn't clearing the traffic, which backed up into the left through lane.
The roadies checked it out and found that the signal is working as prescribed. It can't be lengthened because that would take time away from other phases of the light cycle. The problem is due, they say, to the simple fact of increased traffic in the area, much of it brought in by the new Wal-Mart.
Again, the admonition is to be careful, especially in the left through lane. You don't want to rear-end another vehicle stacked up in that through lane waiting for room to come available in the turn lane.
Happy holidays to everyone in the Bardmoor area of Seminole. That new traffic signal for which you have waited with (not so great) patience is up and operating.
Two days before Christmas it went on flashing for a test phase and now is in full operation, we're told by the good folks at Pinellas County Public Works.
Plans for a traffic signal at this intersection began nearly a year ago after studies by the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization determined that traffic volume had risen to match federal guidelines for traffic signals.
The signal itself was installed by Pinellas County Public Works at a cost of approximately $90,000, which is less than having an outside contractor do the work. More than 30,000 cars a day pass through the intersection of Starkey Road and Bardmoor Boulevard.
Happy trails.
Several neighborhoods are going to encounter street disruptions during the next few months as Pinellas County repairs and replaces underdrains. What, you might well ask, is an underdrain? It is a 6-inch perforated PVC pipe that is buried 30 inches underground and about 2 feet outside the curb line.
Ground water drains into these pipes and then into the storm sewer system, rather than accumulating in the roadbed. Underdrains help prevent cracks and potholes that form on the road surface, reducing maintenance - and therefore the expenditure of taxpayer dollars - by about 30 percent.
So be patient. The work started last Monday and should be finished by May, before the summer rains begin.
The affected neighborhoods: Lighthouse Reserve along 42nd Avenue N near 78th Street, Normandy Court, Harbor Bluffs, 99th Way at 48th Place, Nebraska Road at Belcher Road, Hamlin Boulevard, Spanish Acres and Catalina Drive.
Road work alerts: Along 62nd Avenue NE just east of First Street at Hobson Street, construction will resume on the reclaimed water main project. Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction at Hobson for one week. The pipeline will run along the north side of 62nd Avenue to First Street then turn north to 74th Avenue. The project is expected to be completed this summer.
And 30th Avenue N will be closed for a month between 60th Street and 64th Street for construction of a 42-inch wastewater main replacement across the drainage ditch near 61st Lane. Traffic will be diverted to 26th Avenue N.
- Dr. Delay can be reached by e-mail at docdelay@sptimes.com by fax at 727 893-8675 or by snail mail at 490 First Ave. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.