Traffic has been backing up for several years on the Suncoast Parkway as it narrows to two lanes in each direction north of Van Dyke Road in northwest Hillsborough County.
So state transportation planners want to widen toll highway to six lanes from Van Dyke to State Road 52 in Pasco County. They said there were 1,045 crashes reported in that stretch from 2018 to 2022.
Planners say six lanes are needed now from south of Van Dyke to north of State Road 54, and eight lanes will be needed by 2040. From north of State Road 54 to Ridge Road, six lanes will be needed by 2030. From Ridge Road to State Road 52, six lanes will be needed by 2035.
The total cost would be $984 million. It would be paid for by bonds and tolls.
But one intersection planned for an extension of Rangeland Boulevard in Odessa has aroused the ire of many people living along Bexley Village Drive. It would be about a mile north of an existing interchange at State Road 54.
"We at Bexley are strongly against any interchange at Rangeland Boulevard because Bexley is a small residential community and it's built on the concept of natural trails, biking, pedestrian lifestyle," Odessa resident Kayem Shaukat said during a virtual public hearing, "and there is no point in building any interchange on Rangeland Boulevard."
Resident Nancy Pettit said an interchange with an extended Rangeland Boulevard would create traffic jams in their small community.
"There is an overwhelming majority of over 1,000 signatures on an online petition within three days," she told transportation planners.
An in-person public hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa Suncoast Parkway, 2155 Northpointe Parkway in Lutz.
Comments are being accepted through April 28 at SuncoastParkwayPDE.com.
Draft project documents are available for public review through April 28 at the Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center, 12118 Lake Blanche Drive in Odessa.
