Project already half finished
By Kyle LoJacono
The thousands of people who make the daily trip through the project zone to widen SR 54 will likely see an end to the construction sooner than anticipated.
The job is making the highway six lanes from I-75 to Curley Road in Wesley Chapel, a stretch of about 3.2 miles. The project was scheduled to take 21 months from when it started March 29, but is on pace to take a little more than half that long.
“Right now we’re 50 percent finished in 28 percent of the time,” said Robert Shepherd, Pasco chief project manager. “Really, I think we’re further along than that because most of the utility work is far along.”
Both Withlacoochee River Electric and TECO have moved their unities, while Bright House and Verizon lines are at least 90 percent. Pasco-operated waterlines are 80 percent moved, which is as much as can be completed until the traffic pattern shifts in December.
“Pepper Contracting (Services Inc.) has been able to work around the utility work, so they’ve gotten more done in less time,” said James Widman, Pasco chief engineer.
Pasco commission chairwoman Pat Mulieri said Pepper deserves a lot of credit for the fast pace.
“They’ve put their full workforce into the job,” Mulieri said. “That has been the real key. Not all companies do that.”
Kurt Keith, Pepper’s project manager for the job, said about 90 people are working on the construction each day.
Ron Garraffa, Pepper’s construction manager, gave more of the credit to the county’s proactive approach.
“They delivered everything we needed from the start,” Garraffa said. “Everything was worked out with the utility companies, the right-of-way (land) was bought and finished up front.
“A lot of time right-of-way or utilities lag behind and we can’t go fully into the job and that’s like playing football on a field that’s only 50-yards long,” Garraffa said. “Here we had basically all 100 yards to work on from the start.”
Pepper, based in Clearwater, was founded in 1994 and is owned by Terry Cradick and Doug Ebbers. The company is also completing the widening of W. Lutz-Lake Fern Road in Lutz near Steinbrenner High.
“SR 54 is the largest project in terms of financial at $28 million,” Cradick, Pepper’s president. “The length is also one of the largest we’ve done.”
The project is the most expensive in Pasco history at $105.2 million, according to Shepherd. Only $28 million is for the construction, about 27 percent of the price tag, with another $74.2 million from right-of-way land purchase and $3 million for planning and design.
“That is a large percentage for a project,” Mulieri said. “The businesses were right up next to the road and we needed to buyout some of them to do the project. We’ve learned from that and now we have a row-acquisition policy so development has to be far enough away from roads for future widening.”
Terry Wright of Land O’ Lakes, who works in Wesley Chapel east of the project, is pleased to hear the project is ahead of schedule.
“The construction slows things down and the speed limit is only 35 (mph) through there when it was higher before,” Wright said.
The project has done more than slow traffic on SR 54. It has also forced the temporary closing of roads connecting with the highway. Boyette Road was closed to through traffic from June 19 to Aug. 15 and Curley is closed until Nov. 5, both to work on the intersection with SR 54.
While there is some temporary pain from the project, Wright sees the positives.
“I’m happy they’re doing the project because the road really needs to be wider and it’s good news that it will be done sooner,” Wright said.
Wright’s comments fit in line with what Pepper’s employees have been hearing.
“In the beginning, like with most projects, you hear a lot of concerned people,” Garraffa said. “As we get the information to them they’ve been very receptive and I haven’t really heard anything directly negative about the job we’ve been doing.”
Mulieri said of the project, “I haven’t heard much negative either and most people knew the widening was needed. We needed the infrastructure to move people and bring goods and services to the area and it’s already helping to bring more jobs. T. Rowe Price is bringing 1,600 jobs to the area and they told me it was because of the building of needed roads like (SR) 54. We’re really bringing opportunities home.”
Shepherd said the contract with Pepper says the road will be completed by March 2012. While he said there is not a new opening date, he added Pepper is working so ahead of schedule it is making it almost impossible for them to fail.
“For us, this is a very exciting job,” Cradick said. “Just seeing all the cars that drive on the road lets you know how important it is to the area. It’s going to help the people and the businesses and that’s important to us.”
The connection with the road is even bigger for Garraffa because his parents live in east Pasco and he drives on SR 54 to visit them.
“We’re in the construction business because we like building things,” Garraffa said. “When you step back and see what the job is doing for an area like Pasco County, that makes it really hit home with what we’re doing.”
Road construction meeting Nov. 4
Pasco County government will have its quarterly road project meeting from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Atonement Lutheran Church of Wesley Chapel, 29617 SR 54. There will be people available to answer questions about all current and some future road projects in east and central Pasco.
