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Letter to the editor

Dreaded route turning into rush-hour dream

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 11, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Jim Damaske | Times] Construction of the overpasses at Coachman and Sunset Point began in 2003, and the $47-million project, which includes new frontage roads for accessing businesses and side streets, is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year.

The photograph shows what longtime residents of Pinellas County once could only imagine: a limited access highway through central Pinellas County. From a helicopter above the Countryside area of Clearwater, looking south, a wide, high ribbon of asphalt and concrete now stretches into the distance, rising up and over the major intersections where Pinellas motorists spent so many years and untold gallons of gasoline idling at red lights.

Rush-hour commutes that were once more stop than go now have a segment through Clearwater and another through Largo where traffic moves swiftly and smoothly, unimpeded by traffic lights or turning traffic.

The newest lanes of this developing dream highway opened to traffic last week. Motorists northbound on U.S. 19 in Clearwater the morning of Oct. 1 found themselves traveling over newly opened overpasses at Sunset Point Road and Coachman Road. All lanes were not open, and pavement markings were not completed, but motorists were no doubt grateful for them anyway. Driving through the constantly morphing construction area in the last couple of years has been a test of drivers' skill and patience.

Construction of the overpasses at Coachman and Sunset Point began in 2003, and the $47-million project, which includes new frontage roads for accessing businesses and side streets, is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year.

That won't be the end of construction on U.S. 19 - fortunately. Overpasses like the ones that turned U.S. 19 into a limited access highway through parts of Clearwater and Largo are being built now in the Pinellas Park area at 110th and 118th avenues and are planned in future years throughout North Pinellas.

The Florida Department of Transportation's goal is for the full length of U.S. 19 in mid and North Pinellas to one day be limited access - truly, the safer, faster road imagined by those beleaguered motorists who used to plaster their cars with a bumper sticker that read, "Pray for me. I drive U.S. 19."

[Last modified October 10, 2007, 20:36:44]