By Kyle LoJacono
Staff Writer
The project to widen SR 54 in Wesley Chapel began March 29 and will cost Pasco County a record-breaking $105.2 million to complete.
Pasco Chief Project Manager Robert Shepherd confirmed the project is the largest in the county’s history. The price tag includes $74.2 million to buy the land, $28 million to widen the 3.47-mile strip of road and move utilities and $3 million for planning and design.
The majority of the money went to purchase the land and not the construction itself because most of the property had businesses on it that needed to be bought out. Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader said many of the businesses have already relocated to other places in the county.
The project will make SR 54 a six-lane highway from I-75 to Curley Road. The road is currently four lanes at the western end of the project zone and shrinks to two at Pointe Pleasant Boulevard near Heritage Ford.
The job is projected to take 21 months and is being completed by Pepper Contracting Services, a Clearwater based company, according to Shepherd.
“Pasco is growing and we need to have road projects to accommodate that growth,” Schrader said. “This one in particular might cause people some headaches as it is going on, but in the end the road will be able to better serve the people of Pasco County.
“We sometimes get complaints from time to time from the people who drive the roads every day and want road projects completed faster,” Schrader continued. “They don’t know what goes into a project of this size. A lot happens behind the scenes just to start a project.”
Schrader is from Pasco District 1, which covers all of Zephyrhills, Dade City, much of Wesley Chapel and some of northern Land O’ Lakes.
In the early stages traffic will continue with delays on SR 54, but in about six months vehicles will be diverted to SR 56 through Meadow Pointe Boulevard. State records from last year show that 38,000 vehicles travel on SR 54 between I-75 and Curley each day. Meadow Pointe is currently being resurfaced and strengthened to accommodate the increased traffic.
“We want to continue to grow Pasco County and road projects are an important part of that,” Schrader said. “We need to be careful about where we spend county money especially now. We all need to do more with less and figure out where to do road projects in the future.”
