PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Neighbors living along East Lake Road have watched traffic on the corridor grow steadily, with vehicle counts now topping 60,000 per day during peak hours.
Pinellas County says it is currently conducting a study to examine those traffic patterns and how they will change over the next 20 years.
Rafal Kadaj, a senior highway engineer with Pinellas County, said the study evaluates existing conditions and looks at ways to ease congestion at pinch points along the corridor.
"So whether it's widening lanes, doing signalization improvements, changing signal timing to help traffic flow more efficiently and also evaluating the crossings and making sure that not only our safety from vehicle accounted for but also pedestrian safety," Kadaj said.
Smaller projects are already underway within the East Lake Road corridor, including an additional travel lane at the Tarpon Woods intersection.
Neighbor Jan Rysdon said the increase in traffic heading toward Pasco County has been significant.
"I've been now down in this area, off and on, I've lived here since the early 90s and the number of cars going to Pasco County have just tremendously increased," Rysdon said.
Rysdon said she would like to see the County do more to circulate information about upcoming changes, including through leaflets.
"A lot of my neighbors in this area are older and don't do a lot of internet searching as I do," Rysdon said.
The County held public meetings in 2022 and plans to hold additional meetings as projects within the corridor develop.
"Those will have project information meetings where the public can seek what we're proposing and they can provide feedback," Kadaj said.
Residents can also find up-to-date information on the County's dedicated webpage here.
The county says the full design process will take approximately 2 years, with construction expected to begin around 2031.
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