By Matt Wiley
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has announced the availability for the funding of projects around the state for the next five years. Among the projects listed is a further expansion of S.R. 56 through eastern Wesley Chapel.
According to FDOT’s “Five Year Tentative Work Plan,” which goes into effect on July 1 and runs through June 30, 2019, S.R. 56 will be getting considerably longer. The report states that funding has been approved to extend the busy roadway from where it currently dead-ends at Meadow Pointe Blvd. east to U.S. 301, creating another east-west connector for both Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills residents.
The project, which will stretch 6.7 miles, is expected to cost about $40 million. Construction is scheduled for FDOT’s fiscal year 2017-18. The expansion will intersect with the future Wyndfield Blvd., which will travel through the planned Wyndfields Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which is located off S.R. 54, adjacent to Meadow Pointe.
“This connection will continue to build the arterial grid that is needed in areas where significant growth is anticipated,” says Pasco transportation planning manager Jim Edwards. “The extension of S.R. 56 to U.S. 301 has been included as part of the Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)’s Long Range Transportation Plan since its adoption in 2009.”
In addition to the expansion of S.R. 56, the same report says that the section from west of I-75 to Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. also will see some improvements. S.R. 56 is scheduled to be resurfaced during the 2014-15 fiscal year. The resurfacing of the 2.42-mile stretch of six lanes currently is expected to cost about $6 million.
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