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Lutz

Parkway connection could come sooner

Lutz-Lake Fern Road drivers couldn't expect to hop on the Suncoast for 10-plus years. Planners say the need has changed.

By BILL COATS
Published January 21, 2005

LUTZ - A Suncoast Parkway interchange may be needed at Lutz-Lake Fern Road sooner than expected, state officials say.

Such an interchange would add 10,000 trips a day to the expressway if opened 10 years from now, planners told the Lutz Transportation Task Force this week. Until lately, they had not planned to consider the project for another 10 years.

"I think what surprised us is how quickly it's needed," said Alison Stettner, regional planning administrator for Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, the arm of the state Transportation Department that governs toll roads.

Stettner's staff studied current and projected traffic on Lutz-Lake Fern and found that it carries 18,000 vehicles a day at N Dale Mabry Highway, its busiest spot. Generally, two-lane roads are considered to have a capacity of 15,000 vehicles a day.

Lutz-Lake Fern already is considered a "failed" road between Dale Mabry and the Suncoast because of such numbers, said Ned Baier, a transportation planning manager for Hillsborough County.

Stettner said that about 5,000 of the vehicles that stack up at Sunlake Boulevard would be diverted west to the Suncoast interchange in 2015 projections, thinning traffic along that stretch of Lutz-Lake Fern.

"It's really local impact that you see," Stettner said. "It just moves - flip-flops - the traffic."

Stettner said such benefits have persuaded turnpike officials to take their study a step further, into the revenue impact of the interchange.

No tolls would be collected at Lutz-Lake Fern, but drivers would pay them a few miles up the road. Revenue will help determine how soon the interchange would be justified. It's projected to cost about $7-million to build.

The project originally was envisioned as part of the Suncoast Parkway, and the land was graded for ramps and a half-cloverleaf when the parkway was built. But otherwise, crews simply covered the hillsides in sod because of Lutz-Lake Fern's sparse traffic at the time, and because of opposition from nearby Cheval, which the Suncoast splits.

Since then, nearly 5,000 houses have been built or approved along Lutz-Lake Fern, turning a country road into a busy suburban one. The Hillsborough school system built Martinez Middle School and McKitrick Elementary School on Lutz-Lake Fern, and is considering a high school on land between Martinez and the interchange site.

"That's going to make a huge impact," said Denise Layne, moderator of the task force and president of the Lutz Civic Association.

Such factors prompted turnpike officials to reopen the interchange question, although they didn't include high school traffic in their projections.

"I thought it was very positive," said Sharon Calvo, president of the VillaRosa Master Association, which is lobbying for the interchange even though it would draw extra traffic outside VillaRosa.

"It's not the ideal situation, but it's better than what we've got now," Calvo said.

[Last modified January 20, 2005, 08:53:07]