HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Some describe the traffic on Lithia Pinecrest Road in Valrico to be a nightmare.
It’s a vital two-lane road for people traveling through South County.
“All those communities that are on the outskirts of Fish Hawk need to utilize Lithia Pinecrest to be able to get to the Tampa area,” said Brian Bokor, area resident and manager of a popular community Facebook page called Bokors Corner.
“It can be very challenging, especially during the rush hours between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., of course, and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. That’s when really the traffic starts getting crazy out here,” he added.
According to Hillsborough County, 25,000 to 30,000 people a day travel along Lithia Pinecrest.
“Lithia Pinecrest Road is in the top four worst congested traffic areas in all of Hillsborough County,” said county commissioner Michael Owen.
“If there’s an accident or if there’s a car stalled, then you could be talking hours to get home,” he added.
For years, people who live in the area have been waiting for the county to make improvements along the roadway, but the congestion has only gotten worse as growth in South County has exploded.
“Lithia Pinecrest is a very rural road. So when people say it’s congested, I don’t think people understand the congestion is not coming from commercial aspects; this congestion is coming from residential growth to the south area that this road just can’t support,” said Bokor.
Drivers said they want to see change soon and would like officials to widen the road.
“That would alleviate a lot of the congestion that we see during the morning and afternoon rush hours. As well as give everybody that lives out here a hurricane evacuation route so they can get out of town,” said Bokor.
ABC Action News took their concerns to Owen, who agrees that alleviating congestion on Lithia Pinecrest has to be a priority. However, he said finding a fix won’t be easy.
“Widening roads are a lot more expensive than paving them because we have to acquire the land,” said Owen.
Owen said the biggest problem is money, or rather, the lack of it.
The project is largely unfunded.
“So that price tag is about $206 million if you do the math. It’s a lot of money,” said Owen.
However, the county is now kick-starting the process to make improvements with a Project Development & Environment study.
On May 23, leaders are holding a public input meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Bloomingdale Library to talk about issues on Lithia Pinecrest Road.
Online public input begins May 9.
If the county can’t get all the money it needs for this project to widen the roads, Owen said they’ll have to get creative to come up with a solution, like looking into adding roundabouts.
“We can’t afford to just do nothing. We have got to come up with solutions as quickly as possible because people are suffering daily making this commute,” said Owen.
Until then, residents believe the continued growth in the area will only make the problem worse.
“It’s pretty much been established that Lithia Pinecrest is a failing road, and continuing to add developments to a failing road isn’t going to help,” said Bokor.
