Long-awaited widening of Wesley Chapel Boulevard to Old Pasco Road approved for $70 million
Pasco County commissioners were clear on Tuesday that the plan to widen Wesley Chapel Boulevard to six lanes from State Road 54/56 to Old Pasco Road was long overdue.
Stalled by redesigns and right-of-way purchase delays, county staff said the increase in traffic capacity was critically needed. That was especially true since the Wesley Chapel area has been ground zero for the county development spurt that has made Pasco one of the fastest-growing places in the U.S., according to census estimates.
Pasco commissioners did not hesitate to approve the contract with David Nelson Construction Company for $69.4 million. Parts of that road are still just two lanes.
The segment of road is important because it provides access to many neighborhoods and businesses, said Panos Kontses, the county’s assistant director of transportation engineering. He said it is also an alternative route to Interstate 75.
The original study of the route began 21 years ago, with the first design work in 2008. At the time the plan was for a four-lane rural road, but after that the area experienced “explosive growth” and a new study was begun in 2015, he said. That new plan was to construct an urban road that would be six lanes and add both sidewalks and a bike trail, Kontses said.
Currently the road is six lanes at the southern end with a sidewalk and trail, but then turns into two lanes without a trail or sidewalk. The last stretch before Old Pasco Road is currently four lanes with a sidewalk and trail.
As the county moved to designing the new urban road, they performed a drainage study to be sure that the wider road wouldn’t flood adjacent properties. There were also changes in project managers along the way and acquiring the property needed for the job took until last year, Kontses said.
“That seems like a really long time,” said Commissioner Kathryn Starkey. “Five years.”
Kontses said the county had to acquire 43 land parcels from 25 different owners. “That was an extensive effort for our resources,” he said.
As the design was ongoing, new construction along it was proposed. That meant the county had to keep updating the plan for connections to new projects and adding turn lanes to the design.
“We’re very excited to bring this project to its last phase, construction,” he said.
Starkey said she hoped that the road might be part of the county’s median landscaping plan. Commissioner Jack Mariano suggested that, if the commission really wanted to see something other than grass along that roadway, they would need to act before plans were finalized. County Administrator Mike Carballa said that the staff would talk about the idea and bring information back to commissioners.
In addition to the contractor cost, Kontses said there was another $4.5 million in the budget to pay for the construction engineering inspection.
“Four million dollars to see that it was built right?” Starkey asked. But Kontses said that was less than the normal cost for that service for a project that size.
With the commission’s unanimous approval, the county hopes that paperwork giving the contractor notice to start should be done in two weeks. The work is expected to be completed by May 2027.
