Is Brookron Dr. falling apart?
The one-mile circular local road — which is located off Cross Creek Blvd. (across from the entrance to Cory Lake Isles) and winds itself past the Pinehurst, Magnolia Trace, Meadow Creek and Creekwood neighborhoods of Cross Creek to Kinnan St. — looks in certain parts as if it is being held together by patches of black asphalt.
Lots of patches.
In fact, more than 50 patches, and dozens of other cracks and dips in the 18-year-old road, which is used by most of the Cross Creek II community’s 1,236 households, as well as by residents of the Addison Park and Andover Place apartment communities.
With the county willing to put up $250,000 to connect Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd., at least one local resident wants to know why repaving what is a heavily-trafficked stretch of road isn’t also on the list of county road projects that need to be done.
“It is appalling that Hillsborough County Commissioners would approve $250,000 to build the Kinnan-Mansfield connector, while Brookron Drive in New Tampa, a connector from Kinnan to Cross Creek, is worse than many a third-world road,’’ wrote Pinehurst resident Sasenarine Persaud to county commissioners last month.
Persaud went on to describe the road as, “a motley (collection) of patches, ridges and depressions, with a new pothole opening every week” in his email.
“It has not been resurfaced in eighteen years — yes, 18 years! There is no justification for the county allocating $250,000 to build a road that would primarily benefit residents in another county, while neglecting roads in its own county.”
District 5 County Commissioner Ken Hagan does not disagree that the road, which he has traveled often as a former resident of Creekwood, is in some disrepair. “We’re aware of it,’’ Hagan says. “It has been patched far too many times. I’ve seen it for myself. It certainly has deficiencies.”
Mike Williams, the county’s director of transportation planning and development, says, simply, “It’s a money issue.”
Williams acknowledges that the county has fallen behind on road maintenance due to lack of funding, but notes that they are slowly catching up on repairs, after the commissioners agreed in 2016 to set aside $600 million over 10 years for projects that focus on safety improvements, road widening and resurfacing and sidewalk maintenance.
Brookron Dr., however, is not on that list. But, Hagan says he is going to look into getting it included. “We’re trying to have that road reclassified from local to collector, to help accelerate the resurfacing of (Brookron),” Hagan says.
The estimated cost of resurfacing Brookron Dr. is $500,000, according to the county’s public works department.
Gary Mosby, who works in the county’s customer resolution unit, confirmed that Persaud’s complaints about the condition of Brookron Dr. are shared by others. He said there have been several complaints about the road, and that an engineer has been dispatched to do a full inspection of it.
He said that since the beginning of the year, the county has received at least eight emails requesting potholes be repaired.
He also says that most of the emails come from Jo-Ann Pilawski, the head of property management for the Cross Creek II community,
“I keep calling them every time we go over a pothole,’’ Pilawski says. “Every time I’m talking to one of residents, they will mention how bad it is and ask if they are doing any kind of repaving. When I email the county, they just keep coming out and filling the potholes. Everybody is definitely not happy about it.”
