Hillcrest Traffic Calming Costs Top $2 Million

More roundabouts are coming to Clearwater.

About 10 single-lane roundabouts are part of a $2.5 million traffic calming and stormwater project set for the Hillcrest-Brookhill neighborhood.

City leaders are expected to approve the year-and-a-half project at their meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 112 S Osceola Ave.

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 traffic calming features were envisioned by community residents at the Hillcrest-Brookhill Traffic Calming Charrette. The initiative gained support through a petition signed by owners of approximately 65 percent of the parcels in the project area.

Wood Valley is another neighborhood that was part of that process that still is waiting for the devices to be installed. Residents recently met with city officials to express interest in continuing the project. While 90 percent of the planning is complete the project is stalled, said Paul Bertels, the city’s director of traffic engineering.

“Wood Valley slipped because of stormwater problems,” Bertels said. 

Stormwater improvements also slowed the Hillcrest-Brookhill project.

Bertels said the project was held up in order to incorporate the stormwater component at the same time the streets would be torn up for the installation of the traffic calming devices. The stormwater component of the project is about $500,000.

Once approved, the work would start relatively soon and take about a year and a half to complete.

The project does not include speed tables, speed humps or bumps. The speed tables that have been installed will be removed as part of the project, Bertels said. Traffic calming features include: 

• five mid-size roundabouts
• five mini-roundabouts
• nine oval medians
• landscaped bulb outs

The roundabouts are all single-lane size in order to fit within current right-of-ways, Bertels said. The roundabouts will be 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