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The Suncoast Parkway will not open early, but the parallel bike trail will since so many bicyclists are already using it.
By DAN DeWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2000
SPRING HILL -- As most drivers in the county have no doubt noticed, the stretch of the Suncoast Parkway between County Line Road and State Road 50 is just about done and has been for a couple of months.
But it will not open early, as the Florida Turnpike District previously suggested. Instead, it will open with the rest of the parkway, probably in January.
"It was determined that we will open the entire section, from Veterans Expressway to State Road 50, at the same time," said Joanne Hurley, the project spokeswoman.
But the smaller asphalt strip that runs parallel to the roadbed -- and is as tantalizing to bicyclists as the parkway is to drivers -- will open early, Hurley said, maybe within a month.
That is partly because cyclists already are using it, she said.
"They seem to believe the trail is already open to the public."
Hernando County had previously agreed to maintain the part of the bike trail that runs through the county.
County commissions in Pasco and Hillsborough passed similar resolutions, Hurley said. Hernando will take over the trail and officially open it to riders as soon as a formal agreement can be signed, Hurley said.
She said this process will take about four weeks.
How, exactly, the trail will be maintained and patrolled will be determined later, said Dennis Dix, Hernando's transportation planning coordinator.
At a meeting of the county's Metropolitan Planning Organization on Thursday, county commissioners said they wanted to take a conservative approach. But, Dix said, because it is an urban trail, it will almost certainly require more work than the Withlacoochee State Trail, which runs through the county's east side.
That means patrols of some kind, probably volunteers who can provide information, report any accidents to emergency personnel and whose presence will discourage any criminal activity.
The county will also probably have to mow the trail more often than the Withlacoochee State Trail, which is left pretty much in its natural state.
In return for this work, Dix said, the county is getting a gem.
And as popular as the Withlacoochee State Trail is, the bike trail that will eventually run the entire length of the parkway will probably be more popular.
It has been kept as far as possible from the road; it will be buffered from the traffic by plants and trees, and an effort was made to keep the rolling hills that were largely leveled for the road bed.
"The design and construction of it was done extremely well," Dix said. "It's a world-class trail, even though it is next to a toll road."