The Florida Department of Transportation wants to get drivers to their destination faster and quicker on the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
This comes as another project to help Tampa Bay circulate better comes to an end this summer.
"All the work that they do is for a reason,” said Nicholas Ferrara, who drives the Causeway a lot.
He and other drivers say while they may not enjoy construction from behind the wheel, they’re typically ok with the finished product.
"I'm sick with it a little bit, it's ok though as long as it's going to make it better,” said Patrick Peden, who lives in Clearwater.
And the Florida Department of Transportation is hoping the $8.3 million project will.They plan on replacing lights to brighten up dark spots and keep drivers safe from hazards in the road. The new lights will be brighter LEDs with much less maintenance.
"You can run into debris that falls out: tree debris from truck beds, chairs, coolers,” said Ferrara.
FDOT is also installing six new traffic monitoring cameras and 12 vehicle detection devices which will help traffic engineers manage the flow. They will provide them with crucial information about the amount of cars in a lane and how fast they’re going.
Ferrara says it’s easy to get stuck with nowhere to go when there’s a crash.
"You’ll be sitting on 7 mile bridge for like an hour,” he said.
An FDOT spokesperson said they will also,“install a new DMS sign that will be placed on SR 60 to the west of the Causeway for traffic heading toward the Causeway. This sign will inform drivers of travel times, crashes and if the CCC is closed like during hurricanes."
The work is expected to be finished by spring of 2020 but expect lane closures through Thursday of this week from 7:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. as crews change out the lights in the median.
