S.R. 54 widening to begin...St RD. 56 to Meadow Point, still not opened! (Wesley Chapel: sales)

[bentlebee]

WESLEY CHAPEL - The widening of State Road 54, Pasco County's busiest east-west thoroughfare, officially will begin in 10 days.
Pasco County officials announced this week that work on one of the county's most chronically blocked traffic arteries will start March 29. A public meeting and a formal groundbreaking ceremony will be in April.
County engineer Jim Widman announced the date Tuesday as county commissioners formally hired Pinellas County-based Pepper Contracting Services to expand S.R. 54 from two lanes to six between Interstate 75 and Curley Road. Pepper will be paid $28 million.

"This is monumental," County Administrator John Gallagher said. "I never thought this job would get out to bid."

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It's unclear how many of those drivers will take the Meadow Pointe detour, but those who do will compete with the 42,000 cars that use the S.R. 56, I-75 junction every day.

S.R. 56 faces its own problems. The final stages of construction there stopped this year because the contractor, WDG Inc., went out of business. A search is under way for a contractor to finish paving the road and install stripes and traffic signals, Widman said.

S.R. 54 widening to begin

Wow...In 2005 we bought an investment property in Meadow Point. The builders selling speech was St. Rd 56 extention and how good the sub community could be reached from the Bruce B. Downs...we bought the home not because of St. Rd 56 because we had in the back of our mind that we first had to see the road be finished which not even hard started, before believing the sales pitch...Luckily we sold the house fast because we got very sick of the long time it took to get to that part of Meadow Point...to us it was the never ending road and specially when the school buses are driving around and stop in the middle of the road instead of pulling a little bit onto the side where the gates are so traffic can still be going.

How many times did we read that St. RD 56 through Meadow Point would be finished, too many to count. The last one was that it would be ready in Dec. 2009. It is almost April and now I read the contractor had gone out of business and they need a new one...how much longer will that take, while the road is ready, just no stripes and signals, since the concrete is already in place...

IMO the county should be able to have this job finished so much faster...JMO!