Linking roadway may be months, not years, away

Over the years, the cost of removing a berm and reconnecting Bell Lake Road has soared.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published June 19, 2007

A berm blocks vehicle access along Bell Lake Road in Land O'Lakes. Several years after plans to remove the berm, the road may finally become a shortcut between U.S. 41 and Collier Parkway.
	[Times photo: Stephen J. Coddington]

LAND O'LAKES - The first time Alan Wasser tried to drive from his home in Caliente Resorts on U.S. 41 to the Kmart and Walgreens on Collier Parkway and State Road 54, he did what anyone might do.

He consulted a AAA map.

The map told him Bell Lake Road linked U.S. 41 to Collier Parkway, making it the shortest way.

Well, AAA didn't know about the knee-high grassy berm, all of 20 paces wide, that cuts Bell Lake Road in two. The gap is about a fifth of a mile away from Collier Parkway, where Banjo Lake Road forks off from Bell Lake Road.

The berm brought Wasser to an unexpected halt.

"I had to go all the way back up and down again, " he said.

For five years now, Pasco County has planned to remove the berm and connect the two pieces of Bell Lake Road.

They still hope to get going after they tie up land negotiations with neighboring land owners.

But the estimated cost of the project is now $5.8-million, more than 10 times what it could have cost a few years ago. Skyrocketing road construction and land costs fueled the inflation.

County engineers conducted a public workshop on the extension in May 2002. They completed a study in February 2004, with a recommendation to build the connection for $475, 000. They got the County Commission's go-ahead in July 2005.

Then, silence.

Just slightly longer than 80 feet, the berm was so small that its removal apparently could not compete with bigger projects on the county's to-do list.

"It kept being put as lower priority, " said county engineer Jim Widman.

But, despite some neighbors' objections, Pasco officials agree it makes sense to complete the connection so drivers can bypass the six-lane gridlock at U.S. 41 and SR 54.

"The 'no-build' alternative ... does not provide an upgraded facility to meet the present and future needs of the users, and therefore, is not recommended, " the engineers' report said.

It's less clear why the berm is there in the first place. Widman said he didn't know the reason, or who put up the berm.

But a drive out there provides hints.

On the east side of the berm is the Sable Ridge community, which began building in 1996.

The portion of Bell Lake Road that runs from the berm to Collier Parkway is part of the newer face of central Pasco, where houses sit in neat, gated cul-de-sacs amid man-made ponds. Sable Ridge's developers paved that stretch.

Just a few paces away, on the other side of the berm, is old Pasco: larger lots, rutted roads, citrus groves and neighbors who don't want the connection.

"There will be children and animals that will be hit, " veterinarian Marlene Siegel said shortly after the 2002 public workshop. "It's just waiting to be a death road." Siegel didn't return a call for comment Monday.

Others disagree.

Look at Hale Road, Wasser said. Hale Road sits a little farther north, and also connects Collier and U.S. 41.

It is an unpopular shortcut because it is long and winding, but it is not as if Hale Road is crammed with car accidents, Wasser said.

So what now?

Design and permitting is done. Now, county officials need to start talking to the owners of 21 parcels abutting the proposed connection, 13 of whom will probably have their properties fully or partly taken over to build the link.

"We'll also have to negotiate 13 drainage easements and seven temporary construction easements, " said David Edwards, the county's real estate manager.

Appraising the property will take about three months, Widman said. Negotiations to buy the parcels will take another six.

Wasser, who finally moved into Caliente in October 2006, two years after he first began building his house there - two years after he first ran into the gap in Bell Lake Road - would be pleased.

Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at (813) 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 18, 2007, 23:20:48]