By Terry Witt -Spotlight Senior Reporter
Part 1 – Spotlight Exclusive Interview on Suncoast Parkway 2
U.S. 19 is a well-known highway in western Levy County that looks exactly the way it did decades ago when it was first four-laned, but changes are coming to the highway.
Traffic levels are increasing on U.S. 19, particularly in Chiefland and other cities along the highway. Traffic volumes are expected to grow even more when a new toll road, Suncoast Parkway 2, is connected to U.S. 19 just below Inglis at a place called Red Level in Citrus County.
The Florida Department of Transportation and its sister agency, the
Florida Turnpike Enterprise don’t have an exact day when Suncoast Parkway 2 will open and start feeding toll road traffic to U.S. 19.
Ryan Asmus, DOT lead engineer for an ongoing Project Development and Environment study on U.S. 19 in Citrus and Levy counties, said there’s no doubt Suncoast 2 will be constructed. He said the PD&E study for the Suncoast 2 toll road was completed in 1998.
“It will be built,” Asmus said.
The first segment of Suncoast Parkway 2 has been completed and opened. When the tollway is fully constructed, it will connect U.S. 19 to an existing toll road in Citrus County called Suncoast Parkway, which is in turn linked to the Veterans Expressway in Tampa, which means traffic can flow north from Tampa to U.S. 19.
A map published on DOT’s website shows the first segment of Suncoast 2 extending from Cardinal Street in Citrus County to State Road 44 is finished and opened this year.
The second phase of Suncoast 2 from State Road 44 to Citrus County Road 486 is under design. Construction funding is expected in 2023. The planned opening is 2026.
Phase 3A of Suncoast 2 from Citrus County Road 486 to Citrus County 495 is being designed. Construction funding is expected in 2023. The planned opening is 2026.
The final phase of Suncoast 2 connecting U.S. 19 at Red Level to the toll road is under design.
Construction of Suncoast 2 could take two or three years or longer after design and right-of-way acquisition are completed.
DOT officials are emphatic that U.S. 19 will remain a free highway even after toll road traffic is added to the highway. Residents will never see a toll booth on the road.
DOT is in the early stages of a Project Development and Environment study that will devise solutions for preserving smooth traffic flow on U.S. 19. The study will analyze the traffic impacts of connecting the highway to a toll road as well as the traffic impacts resulting from residential and business development in Levy County in the immediate future and for decades to come.
Technically, the U.S. 19 PD&E study isn’t directly connected to the Suncoast 2 project, but DOT officials acknowledge they are factoring in the additional traffic that the toll road will add to U.S. 19 when designing solutions for preserving good traffic flow conditions on the free highway.
Asmus said public meetings will take place early next year to reveal environmental features the agency has found along U.S. 19 from Red Level to 140th St. north of Chiefland, the focus of the PD&E study. Later in 2023, additional public meetings will take place to reveal possible solutions to meet the DOT’s goal of preserving smooth traffic flow on U.S 19.
The prices of construction materials, particularly aggregate, could influence when construction begins and how much Suncoast 2 costs. Aggregate is highway construction material such as sand, gravel, and crushed stone.
“One of the things you see with the department (DOT) is project prices are escalating – one of the things that they talk about is aggregate. Aggregate is a big problem for us,” Asmus said in an interview with Spotlight. “As project prices increase, we wind up pushing projects further out to the next fiscal year, or the next fiscal year to be able to pay for what we’ve got going with construction.”
Asmus was asked to estimate a reasonable date for Suncoast 2 to be constructed. He said once the elements of the highway design are laid out in a computer program, engineers will have a better idea of how much right-of-way they need to acquire to build the tollway, and those factors will influence when the new toll road opens for business.
He is aware residents of Chiefland and Inglis are concerned about preserving their way of life and they want to know what impacts might come from increased traffic flow and if bypasses might be constructed around their communities when the traffic becomes heavier.
———————
Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt August 29, 2022; Posted August 29, 2022
