PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation has started construction on a road improvement project in Pinellas County along U.S. 19, from S.R. 580 to north of Curlew Road.
The $242.6 million project has been years in the making to improve traffic flow and safety.
Right now, the area is a six-lane divided highway. FDOT is going to change it to a controlled access roadway and add interchanges and frontage roads.
“The whole idea is to separate the two groups of traffic. You have slower traffic that’s on the frontage roads wanting to get to businesses. You have the higher-speed traffic that’s just wanting to traverse the corridor. So the whole idea is for safety and really congestion levels out there,” said Kris Carson, spokesperson for FDOT.
FDOT will also add a pedestrian underpass and a pedestrian bridge as part of the project.
Crews began construction last week and are starting with resurfacing the road first.
“It’s pretty rough out there in some of those lanes, so we’re going to smooth out the roadway there. We’re also going to start in the next two months setting some barrier walls in the median work, so there’s going to be lots of traffic shifts. A lot of underground utility work, so we need a lot of patience out there,” said Carson.
Officials said this project will be a challenge because there are several elements crews are dealing with.
“This is a really heavily traveled corridor. We have to keep traffic moving and build a job and keep all the access to businesses open,” said Carson.
Drivers should expect traffic impacts, including changes to traffic patterns and lowered speed limits through the construction area.
“We need a lot of patience from the drivers. We’re going to have a lot of traffic shifts out there for the safety of the workers and the safety of the motorists so please slow down. It could look different from week to week with the traffic shifts, so we just ask for people to really pay attention out there,” said Carson.
Construction will happen during the day and at night. Any work involving lane closures will be from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
It’s expected to be complete in 2028.
FDOT is holding two open houses about the construction on May 16.
- One is virtual from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
- The other open house is in-person from 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at the Countryside Recreation Center, 2640 Sabal Springs Dr., Clearwater
