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Retailers brace for road work

Chamber members get a preview of the next phase of the Ulmerton Road project.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published January 10, 2007

LARGO - To steer clear of heavy traffic, Joe Falanga avoided Walsingham Road as work crews tore up pavement and added lanes over the past couple of years.

The project wrapped up last month, but now Falanga, who owns Pak Mail at Largo Mall, worries that others will avoid his business when Ulmerton Road is widened near the mall next year.

"I think people who use the mall will say, 'Hey, I'm not going to bother with that,' " said Falanga, who serves on the Largo/Mid-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce's executive committee.

The $24-million Florida Department of Transportation project likely won't begin until fall 2008, but local business leaders got a chance at a chamber lunch Tuesday to find out about the plan to widen Ulmerton from east of 119th Street to east of the Largo Mall.

Project consultant Michael Dixon pledged to minimize the project's impact on all business and property owners.

"We will maintain access to every property owner at all times," said Dixon, who is director of highway design for Reynolds, Smith & Hill, a Jacksonville-based architectural and engineering consulting firm.

The DOT just finished widening a 2.4-mile section of Ulmerton and Walsingham roads, from east of Oakhurst Road to 119th Street.

The next project will continue where that one left off. It will widen a 1.6-mile span of the road from four to six lanes and add turn lanes at Ridge Road and Seminole Boulevard. It also will add bike lanes and improve traffic signals.

About 40,000 cars and trucks daily use that section of Ulmerton, according to 2005 Metropolitan Planning Organization average daily traffic counts.

Slated for completion by fall 2010, it's one of seven key projects planned to widen a 12-mile stretch of Ulmerton from Oakhurst Road to Interstate 275.

"The whole plan is to widen the corridor to alleviate the congestion and increase the capacity," DOT spokeswoman Kris Carson said.

Chamber president Tom Morrissette asked Dixon to assure members that signs will be posted so customers will be able to find businesses and that local merchants will be kept in the loop as the project moves forward.

And Jerry Dominick, owner of Sugar Creek Manufactured Home Community near the proposed project, said he was concerned that residents, especially those on foot, would be able to get in and out of his community safely.

Falanga said he understands the need for the project but thinks the timing couldn't be worse, with rising property taxes and skyrocketing insurance rates.

"Enduring two years of this hardship is going to be tough with the compounding extra pressures that are on us," Falanga said. "Higher costs and less customers is not a good equation."

Times staff writer Lorri Helfand can be reached at lorri@sptimes.com or 727 445-4155.

[Last modified January 9, 2007, 23:18:39]