Southpinellas: It's big. It's brown. But what is it?

It's big. It's brown. But what is it?

The "monotube,'' which looms over the intersection at 66th Street N and Park Boulevard and resembles a sewer pipe, is now the talk of the town.

By ANNE LINDBERG

The "monotube," which looms over the intersection at 66th Street N and Park Boulevard and resembles a sewer pipe, is now the talk of the town.

PINELLAS PARK -- The hot topic last week for customers at Luigi BG Italian restaurant was the pipe.

Motorists who have driven through the intersection at Park Boulevard and 66th Street N know the one. It arcs above the roadway from the southeast to the northwest corner.

It's big and brown and ugly and looks like a sewer pipe. For a few days, it even sagged in the middle, like a dispirited horse, though that was straightened by late in the week.

"It's ridiculous," said Janice Algie, a waitress at Luigi BG, a couple of doors down 66th from the pipe. Customers kept "asking what it is and how long it's going to be there. . . . One person said it was a water pipe."

No one knew for sure until one of the "city guys" went into the restaurant and explained that it's a "monotube" that will hold street signs and traffic signals for the intersection.

Algie passed the word to customers.

"They're like,whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Algie said.

The $200,000 monotube is the most obvious of major changes that will be made to that busy junction during the next six months. The roadways there will be widened to accommodate an additional left-turn lane on each side of the intersection.

The goal of the $2-million project is to move traffic through the intersection more quickly. As it stands, drivers traveling west on Park can wait two or three light cycles before they're able to make a left onto 66th, said Scott Pinheiro of the city's engineering department. After the changes are completed sometime in October, more people will be able to turn during each light cycle.

The bad news is that traffic will be disrupted until the work is complete. State Department of Transportation officials say they'll try to keep lane closures to nights, when there's less traffic.

But back to the monotube.

With almost 90,000 cars crossing the intersection each day -- or twice the population of Pinellas Park -- the monotube has created a stir.

Critics have called the city, the DOT and theTimes to say the pipe is ugly.

Sensitive to the scorn, Pinellas Park officials have been quick to point out that, as Pinheiro said, "It's not ours, it's DOT's."

Pinheiro also defends it.

"It's got a long way to go," he said. "It'll look nice when it's done."

Pinellas Park traffic guru Tom Nicholls said, "It's just different. We're not used to it. . . . (When) you get the signal heads on there, it should look okay."

Nicholls said to blame Hurricane Andrew. After that Category 4 storm took down poles and wires and signals, all lights within 10 miles of the coast must be on structures that can withstand 150-mph winds. No more traffic lights hanging from wires.

In this case, the DOT cannot use the existing concrete poles with arms that reach halfway across the road, said Marian Pscion, DOT spokeswoman. In widening the roadway, the DOT will be using up most of the available right of way, leaving no room for the concrete poles. The monotube will fit into the remaining right of way, thus saving time and money in buying additional space, Pscion said.

Using the monotube to hang traffic signals is unusual, at least in this part of the state, she said. The Suncoast Parkway uses them to hold road signs.

"It's just a different structure that you don't see too often," Pscion said. "People are confused now because it doesn't have the signal lights on it."

Pscion said the DOT is willing to work with the city to improve the monotube's appearance, meaning it might be painted a color other than sewer-line brown.

Some officials are taking a lighthearted view of the new "gateway to Pinellas Park."

Council member Rick Butler told one waitress at Luigi BG that the tube was the city's newest sewer line. The city runs it above ground, he said, to save the cost of digging under the road and tearing things up.

"You know how I am, always cracking jokes," Butler said.

He added, "It's bizarre at best. . . . I'm going to give it the benefit of a doubt until it's done. . . . There's got to be something we can do with this thing. We're going to get calls from the Extreme Games from someone wanting to skate on this thing."

Tim Caddell, the city's public events director, said one of the best ideas was to use it as a pneumatic tube (like the ones found in bank drive-throughs) to whisk pedestrians from one side of the street to the other.