Hillsborough Approves Agreement To Install Signal On County Line Rd.

By Matt Wiley

Improvements that will benefit both drivers and pedestrians are on their way to County Line Rd., which serves as the border between New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. And, one of those improvements could be completed as early as January.

On November 13, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners approved an Interlocal Agreement from Pasco Country (sent to Hillsborough in September) that will allow for a new traffic signal at County Line Rd. and Northwood Palms Blvd. Under the agreement, Pasco will design and construct a temporary, wooden-pole traffic signal at the busy intersection at no cost to Hillsborough. 

Pasco Traffic Operations manager Robert Reck says that the plans for the light have been completed and the next step is sending the design to Hillsborough for approval and to obtain right-of-way use and lane closure permits.

“Once the permits are issued by Hillsborough County, we should be starting construction within two weeks,” Reck says, adding that his department already has all of the necessary materials to construct the signal and will be erecting it using an in-house crew. 

Reck also notes that, since the signal is technically a temporary one, it only will take about two weeks to put into place, which means the entire project could be completed by early January 2015, depending upon how quickly Hillsborough issues its permits.

A traffic study by Pasco engineers found that the intersection warrants a signal, meeting several Federal requirements, with nearly 14,000 vehicles using the intersection during an average 24-hour cycle.

Foot Traffic Improvements

In addition to the new signal, a multi-use path that currently dead-ends along the north (Pasco County) side of County Line Rd. soon could be extended, allowing for uninterrupted pedestrian traffic from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to Northwood Palms Blvd.

On November 18, the Pasco BOCC approved an agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to pay for and construct an eight-foot-wide multi-use path from Northwood Palms Blvd. (located east of the entrance to The Hammocks townhomes) east to where the current eight-foot-wide path dead-ends, just west of Big Creek Dr. (the entrance to The Lakes at Northwood community), on the north side of County Line Rd.

County documents indicate that the path extension originally was named as a possible project that could be funded with the Penny for Pasco program (a one-cent sales tax used to fund county projects). However, since the 1,600-foot project to connect the paths doesn’t require the purchase of any right-of-way, the Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) submitted the project to FDOT two years ago to see if the agency would foot the bill.

FDOT has funding set aside for the project in its five-year plan, but to secure those funds, the Pasco BOCC first had to approve a Local Agency Program (LAP) agreement with FDOT, which it did at the Nov. 18 meeting. 

The design for the project is expected to cost about $25,000, with actual construction estimated at more than $260,000. Pasco is responsible for submitting the project’s design to FDOT by no later than December of 2015 so that construction can begin in 2016.