$836 Million For Local Road Improvements? Plus, Our New Online Ads

By now, anyone who regularly drives the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) at S.R. 56 or the new Overpass Rd. exit at I-75 has to recognize that these transportation improvements have helped relieve traffic in our area.

And, with new lanes now open eastbound and opening soon westbound on S.R. 54 between Curley Rd. and Morris Bridge Rd., it appears that Wesley Chapel’s biggest traffic problems are continuing to improve.

Even so, I still hear (and see on Facebook) lots of complaints about our traffic issues and the amount of money that is or isn’t being spent to do something about fixing them.

Does $836 million in state transportation improvements sound like nothing has been done?

Although not all of that amount has been spent on alleviating traffic in Wesley Chapel “proper,” almost $530 million of it has been spent on a wide variety of transportation capacity projects serving zip codes 33543, 33544 & 33545 since 2002 — and that amount doesn’t include the hundreds of millions more that Pasco and the developers of Wesley Chapel-based communities have spent to improve the roads in and around all of our area’s new subdivisions.

The remaining $300+ million of that $836 million total is what has been spent improving the state-owned roadways in the Wesley Chapel-adjacent communities of New Tampa (nearly $187 million) and San Antonio ($94.5 million).  

Thanks to our new editorial research contributor (and new local Realtor with Florida Executive Realty) Joel Provenzano, who previously worked for the Florida Department of Transportation (aka FDOT), I am proud to be able to break down just the state funds that have been spent to make traffic less of a nightmare for those of us who live and/or work in and around “The Chap” (see chart above).

And, while I understand that those who were here before the boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s miss all the cows, empty space and being able to have just one blinking yellow light from BBD (then C.R. 581) at S.R. 54 to one signal at BBD and I-75 in New Tampa, most of the locals who moved to this area once the development of Wesley Chapel and New Tampa started to take hold are appreciative of the improvements that have been made here since 2002.

I do realize that, with the continued explosion of new homes and businesses in our area, more money will need to be spent to keep our area from turning into another Dale Mabry Hwy. or Brandon Blvd. I, for one, however, am happy to not be sitting in traffic as often as I was before all of these improvements were made.  

Check Out Our Online Ads!

Over the past few years, as online advertising has infiltrated pretty much every part of our lives, we have had just a couple of online ads on our website — NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net.

But, as the number of visits to our site has grown exponentially the last 2-3 years, I have always wanted to offer local businesses the opportunity to place ads on our site — which now averages 30,000 visits every month — I just wasn’t sure what to charge for those ads.

Well, those rates are now set and the first of those online ads should be up on our site by no later than June 15. So, whether you want to supplement your print ads or advertise with us online only, please call (813) 910-2575 or email ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com.