Businesses on edge as six-year US 19 construction project begins
TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation is hoping to ease traffic congestion with a project on U.S.-19 between Dunedin and Palm Harbor in Pinellas County, but not everyone is looking forward to it.
The changes are specifically planned for between State Road 580 and to the north of County Road 95.
Crews will reconstruct the existing six-lane divided highway into a six-lane controlled access roadway with one-way frontage roads in both directions that parallel U.S.-19, according to FDOT. They’ll add new interchanges just north of Boy Scout Road and Curlew Road to try to improve traffic flow and U-turns.
A pedestrian underpass will also be added between Evans Road and Republic Drive and a pedestrian bridge over U.S.-19 will be built at Northside Drive. Kris Carson, a spokesperson for FDOT, said there have been five pedestrian deaths in the past five years along the one-and-a-half-mile stretch of U.S.-19 that the project is planned for.
Rendering of US construction project.
"We cannot just ignore pedestrians," she said. "People do cross the roadway. We have to look at our most vulnerable road users, which are bicyclists and pedestrians, and unfortunately, Florida really struggles with that," Carson said.
Carson said the goal of the project is to increase the capacity and decrease congestion while making the roadway safer.
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Some business owners along US 19 said they’re worried that the changes and the construction itself could destroy their businesses.
Aerial view of traffic along US 19.
"I have almost 50 employees," John LaSpina, owner of Maple Family Centers, said. "Half of them are full-time. If you take a look, there are other small businesses that employ people. That hurts. That really hurts. It hurts the local economy and then it’s like a stone in the lake. It hurts the grocery store. It hurts the hairdressers, the gas stations, everything."
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"Think about the options to come and play a game that I sell, have their car repaired, to have any of the services that our neighbors on this side do," he said. "It’s really a difficult thing because people have options and if they don’t want to come on this frontage road, they’ll go somewhere else for all of it not just for me," LaSpina added.
Rendering of US construction project.
Carson said there will be a lot of construction with this project, but they’re going to work with the businesses to get through it.
"Any time we have major traffic shifts or detours, we go door to door. We call it flyering. We go door to door out there. We let them know that there's going to be median work, for example, or if there's going to be major changes in their area we'll call them. They can sign up for our website and our lane closure information system. So, we want to make sure that they're kept abreast all the time of any kind of major changes out there. There is going to be a lot of work, but we're going to work with the businesses to get through it," Carson said.
Construction will happen in phases. The project is expected to be completed by 2029 and will cost $242.6 million.