Road Closings For Hillcrest Traffic Calming Project Start This Week
Some roads will be closed as part of the $2.5 million Hillcrest-Brookhill neighborhood traffic calming project, which started this week and is expected to be complete in a year and a half.
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Work on a $2.5 million traffic calming and storwater improvement project starts this week in the Hillcrest-Brookhill neighborhood in Clearwater.
The neighborhood, generally bounded by Missouri and Hillcrest avenues and Belleair and Lakeview roads, is one of the original eight that went through a process to implement traffic calming devices in 1999.
The project will add roundabouts, remove existing speed tables and increase stormwater piping. The first area of construction is at St. Thomas Drive from Betty Lane to Hillcrest Avenue.
The following roads and intersections will be closed as part of the project:
- St. Thomas Drive from Hillcrest Avenue to Betty Lane will be closed through April 10. Bellevue Road or Howard Street can be used as a detour.
- The intersection of Hillcrest Avenue and St. Thomas Drive will be closed from April 10 to May 3. Traffic can use St. Thomas and Rose Streets to Sunny Park Drive and Evergreen Avenue.
When complete, the project will add 10, single-lane size roundabouts at the following intersections:
- S Evergreen Avenue at Campbell Court
- S Hillcrest Avenue at Temple Street
- S Hillcrest Avenue at Lime Street
- S Hillcrest Avenue at Satsuma Street
- S Hillcrest at Orange Street
- S Evergreen Avenue at Bellevue Boulevard
- S Hillcrest Avenue at Bellevue Boulevard
- St. Thomas Drive at Frederica Avenue
- S Evergreen Avenue at St. Thomas Drive
- S Hillcrest Avenue at St. Thomas Drive
Construction is expected to take a year and a half to complete.
Call 727-562-4750 or visit www.myclearwater.com.
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Carl Schrader
2:01 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I live in this neighborhood. About 16 years ago some neighbors began talking and working together on ways to find solutions to reduce the number of cars that sped or cut through the neighborhood. The city met with the neighbors and told them that they could petition for traffic calming assistance . They needed to get a majority of the residents to agree to the traffic calming petition. I remember being a new resident and some neighbors approached me with a clipboard to sign the petition. Fast forward to 2013 and the physical work is now starting. There were many meetings and many neighbors involved at one time or another. These neighbors met with engineers, planners, designers and other specialists to review road designs, landscaping, lighting, pedestrian crossings and many more details that will eventually change the roads in the neighborhood. The first part of the physical work involves upgrading and modifying some storm water drainage systems. Here is a link to a video that shows what happens when it rains - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmhs9yzmTjk I will try to upload or send some images to the ClearwaterPatch Editor that a neighbor sent me. These images show what happens after a heavy rain. The funds for this project came from the 1% sales sur tax, also known as "Penny for Pinellas." The majority of the neighbors are hoping that the end result of this is safer and well drained streets.
George Wilkinson
8:25 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
No more boogie boards in the streets...:-)