The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

Work continues on plans to extend Overpass Road

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Work is set to proceed this spring to lay the groundwork for an extension of Overpass Road, east of Boyette Road to U.S. 301.

Design permitting and re-evaluation of the Project Development and Environment (PD&E) Study is set to begin this spring and is expected to be finished in 2023.

Pasco County is providing $2.5 million and the Florida Department of Transportation also is providing $2.5 million, according to materials in the Pasco County Commission’s Jan. 25 agenda packet.

The county board approved a Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP) Agreement with FDOT on Jan. 12, 2021, for the design phase of the project.

Under terms of that agreement, Pasco County agreed to fund $2,584,107 and FDOT would fund $2,415,893, of the estimated $5 million design cost.

Typically, TRIP Agreements are funded 50/50, but the FDOT had to reduce its funding by  $84,107 because of fiscal impacts to their Work Program. The state transportation agency agreed to restore those funds in its Fiscal Year 2022 Work Program.

So, the county board approved an action at its Jan. 25 meeting to reduce the amount of funding contributed by the county and increase FDOT’s funding, to arrive at a match of $2.5 million each.

No other changes to the initial TRIP Agreement are proposed.

According to FDOT’s website, the project limits extend from Old Pasco Road on the west to U.S. 301 on the east, for a total length of approximately 9 miles.

Improvements for Overpass Road include the following:

  • Four lanes from Old Pasco Road to Interstate 75
  • A new interchange at I-75 and Overpass Road
  • Six lanes plus two auxiliary lanes from I-75 to Boyette Road
  • Six lanes from Boyette Road to US 301

Published February 09, 2022

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Comments

  1. The expansion of the Old Pasco Rd / Boyette / Overpass Rd from west of I-75 to US 301, as described in this week’s Laker, is an unmitigated disaster for all of the people in Pasco County, and should never be allowed to happen!
    And what’s driving this expansion from a 2-lane road to a six-lane road (with auxiliary lanes)? Simple. Hundreds and hundreds of new housing developments along this route as can be seen on any satellite view of the area.
    But wait. It gets better. That roadway expansion will by itself drive further monstrous housing developments northward into the open, agricultural land on the north side of this roadway, further jamming up traffic in the area, and destroying what’s left of the rural nature of this part of Pasco County, and in addition requiring like expansion of existing 2-lane roads to 4 or 6-lane roads to the North. Count on it.
    And the kicker is that the developers building all of these “little boxes made of tiki-tacki” are getting the State and County to use taxpayer money to build the infrastructure to address the mess they have created or are planning to create, and neither the County or State is requiring the developers to foot the bill. In any event, the jury is out on whether the roadway expansion will be sufficient to handle the new load, plus the new load of planned additional developments as yet un-permitted.
    Developers are building new housing developments with 5,000 sq ft lots, resulting in houses 5-feet apart, with $400 per month HOA fees, the restrictions of which preclude your planting a tree in your front yard without HOA approval. In addition, the cost for these developers to build these boxes is $135 to $145 per square foot, but are sold to the public at $270 to $300+ per square foot, making the average home price at or near $500,000 – that’s half a million dollars. Couple this with the pricing and sales shenanigans these builders play, and you quickly see the obvious greed driving these developments, and those people from outside our communities who benefit.

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