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Crenshaw Lake Road gets barriers to deter speeders

County commissioners approve four speed tables and four speed cushions to slow traffic. The speed limit will also decrease.

By BILL COATS
Published September 15, 2006

LUTZ - Hillsborough County commissioners have approved construction of eight traffic-slowing tables along the curves of Crenshaw Lake Road - and in the path of tides of commuters.

The change also involves a reduction of Crenshaw's speed limit to 30 mph from 35.

The four speed tables and four speed cushions were approved without discussion, along with 35 other noncontroversial items in Tuesday's meeting.

Buz Barbour, the county's traffic-calming manager, said the changes should be implemented in two to four months.

"We are so ecstatic," said Lea May, who led the effort to gather more than 160 petition signatures for the program. "I'm just dancing around the house, barefooted."

The Crenshaw speed tables won't be the last in the vicinity. Barbour said his office last week verified a stack of petitions seeking five speed tables on Crystal Lake Road a mile north. That plan should go to commissioners in a month, he said.

The five tables on Crystal would be evenly spaced along the road's residential stretch. On Crenshaw, the eight speed barriers will target the road's two tight S-curves. The recommended speed for crossing any of the devices is 20 mph.

Both projects grew from a study of Lutz's traffic conditions west of U.S. 41. Launched as Idlewild Baptist Church was planning last year to move to its huge new campus off Van Dyke Road, the study found chronic speeding before and after Idlewild drivers arrived.

A hearing master recommended a total of 22 raised-asphalt slowing devices, divided among four neighborhoods east of Idlewild.

Two of those neighborhoods, flanking Simmons Road and Crooked Lane, haven't submitted petitions. The county may poll their residents by mail.

The Crystal Lake Road effort required roughly 100 "yes" signatures from among 133 property owners, said Steve Johnson, who led a group of four petitioners. They worked Saturdays through most of the summer, he said.

"I got to meet a lot of my neighbors I really didn't know existed," Johnson said. "A lot of nice people and a lot of interesting people."

Bill Coats can be reached at coats@sptimes.com or 813 269-5309.

[Last modified September 14, 2006, 12:58:14]