McMullen Booth Road Work to Last Through Tuesday

Work to repair a concrete railroad transition panel on one of the heaviest traveled roads in Clearwater is expected to be complete Tuesday.

The southbound center lane of McMullen Booth Road near the railway crossing just south of State Road 590 is expected to reopen at 4 p.m.

Bolts between the concrete and the wooden railroad ties below keep coming loose on one of the panels. The panel serves as a transition from the railroad tracks to the road. 

Crews will have to close the center median lane starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday to start preliminary work to repair the panel. Workers will remove the defective components and improve the crossing in time to reopen the road by 4 p.m. More work and lane closures are expected in the future.

Southbound traffic will be able to use the curbside lane, but expect congestion until repairs are complete.

The suggested detour is US Highway 19 North, Belcher Road or Keene Road, utilizing State Road 590 and Drew Street.  

This is the fourth time in about a year that the road has had to close for similar repair work. Most recently, the southbound lanes were completely closed as . Before that, crews repaired the same section because of a . They then had to come back in October to .

CSX did a major overhaul at the intersection about four years ago. At the time, the road was closed for about three weeks in both directions so crews could install the concrete pads and do other work on the ties and line. CSX officials expected the panel to last at least 10 years. CSX and Penny for Pinellas paid more than $700,000 for the project.