Local reaction mixed about project
By Kyle LoJacono
Staff Writer
LAND O’ LAKES — The recent firing of WDG Construction Inc. by the Pasco County commissioners has left the Collier Parkway extension project in limbo.
The Wesley Chapel-based company, which was also fired by the commissioners from the project to connect Mansfield and Meadow Pointe boulevards in Wesley Chapel, had its contract with the county terminated Feb. 9. County chief engineer Jim Widman said the company stopped work on the extension in December after its vehicle and workers insurance expired.
The extension, which will take Collier through Hale Road and Parkway Boulevard and connect with Ehren Cutoff, is meant to ease traffic on US 41 by allowing those living in the area to take Collier south to bypass the congested highway. However, those working and living in the affected area are mixed about what the extension will do to traffic.
“If anything it will make the traffic worse on Collier,” said Christina Telleir, property manager for The Lakes at Collier Commons Apartments. “It will help with traffic on (US) 41, but everything on it south of Ehren Cutoff is six lanes I believe, so that is where most of the traffic should be. I guess I’m mixed on the extension because I want progress and growth, but the traffic should stay on the main roads.”
Collier Commons is located just north of the intersection of Collier and SR 54. Telleir not only works in the area, but lives close by in Sable Ridge.
Representatives from several of the neighborhoods on Collier, including Lake Padgett and Plantation Palms, all echoed Telleir’s concerns. However, Rebecca Macone, community association manger for Lake Padgett East, saw more positives resulting from the extension.
“It will pull some of the traffic from the back roads,” Macone said. “The buses drive through Lake Padgett East to get to the bus depot on Parkway Boulevard. The extension will let them use Collier to get to the depot instead of driving through the neighborhoods.”
Jeff Johnson, who has lived off Parkway Boulevard near Ehren Cutoff since July 2009, has his own concerns about the buses.
“The back of our house faces Parkway, so we expect to hear much more traffic, especially in the mornings when Pasco County school buses are driving to and from their lot at Pine View Middle School,” Johnson said. “The Collier extension will provide a more convenient path to the businesses around Collier, SR 54 and to I-75 and Wesley Chapel, but my family hopes the convenience will outweigh the additional noise.”
Other major places affected by the extension include Pine View Middle School, Lake Myrtle Elementary, Academy at the Lakes school, Land O’ Lakes Branch Library, Land O’ Lakes Recreation Center and Our Lady of the Rosary Church.
“We have between 2,500 and 3,000 members of our parish and some of those do come from that area that would have their travel time reduced by the extension,” said Deacon Dennis Snyder. “When mass lets out on Sundays, it gets a little crazy out there. That wouldn’t do anything with the weekday traffic, but it can get bad on Collier.”
The extension project was planned in three phases. The first two, which WDG was hired to complete, will take Collier north through Hale until it connects with Parkway Boulevard. The last will further extend Collier to Ehren Cutoff. The whole project will add about three miles of road to Collier, one from phase one and two and two more miles from phase three.
Phases one and two were set to be completed this spring, but WDG had finished less than 40 percent of the work as of Feb. 9. WDG was awarded the contract worth $4.3 million to complete the first two phases in April 2009. Since being fired from the project, the company has taken down its Web site and disconnected its phone number.
Deborah Bolduc, program administrator for Pasco County Engineering Services, said phase three will not be planned until 2013 or 2014 and will not be completed until at least 2015 or 2016. Bolduc said phases one and two will still be completed, but no plans had been set for how and by when as of Feb. 17.
WDG was the second construction company doing work in Land O’ Lakes fired by the county this year. Kearny Construction Company, which was doing waterline work along US 41, also had its contract with Pasco terminated in January.
When the road extension is completed, the land around it will be usable for a variety of different purposes. In an e-mail, the Pasco Zoning and Site Development Department wrote the different portions of the newly accessible land are zoned of everything from residential to agricultural purposes.
“I’ve lived in Land O’ Lakes for most of my life,” Telleir sad. “When I was young there was barely a Collier Parkway and I hope the increased traffic doesn’t negatively affect the area.”
