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By ELIZABETH LEE BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2007

Updated: 12/06/2007 05:55 pm

CARROLLWOOD - It soon will be time to slow down through the streets of Original Carrollwood.

Hillsborough County public works crews have begun building an extensive system of traffic-calming measures on the roads interconnecting homes east of North Dale Mabry Highway and south of Fletcher Avenue.

The $950,000 project will add speed barriers such as speed tables, colored and raised intersections, textured crosswalks, bike lanes and speed feedback signs to 14 roads.

Drivers should expect intermittent lane and road closures throughout the neighborhood until the project is completed in March.

The traffic-calming measures are aimed at slowing speeders and cut-through traffic.

To keep costs down, county crews will do the roadway preparation and grading work, and subcontractors will do the specialized pavement work, said Sam Halabi, the county engineer overseeing the project.

Halabi said traffic calming on the most critical streets, such as Orange Grove Drive and Lake Ridge Road, will be addressed first.

The heavily traveled Orange Grove Drive is slated to have the most extensive upgrades, including seven speed feedback signs, eight raised intersections, five speed tables, four gateway signs, 10 chevron warning signs, two raised crosswalks, two colored and textured intersections, a speed table with a median, five bicycle route signs, and pavement striping for bicycle lanes.

Other popular connectors such as McFarland Road will have a raised crosswalk, two raised intersections, two colored and textured intersections, two speed feedback signs, and pavement striping for bicycle lanes.

Mark Snellgrove, president of the Original Carrollwood Civic Association, said residents are excited about seeing work beginning.

"I think the general feedback that we've been receiving is that the ones that really attended all the meetings, they've been waiting anxiously for it. A lot of the residents live on these main roads where they have speeders," he said.

Snellgrove said it was important to have speed tables and crosswalks aesthetically designed, featuring colored brick to blend into and complement the neighborhood.

To address cut-through traffic, the county will ban left turns from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays on Orange Grove Drive at Hampton Place.

A traffic analysis found that a driver cut through Hampton Place about every 3.5 minutes in the morning peak hour and about every 1.3 minutes in the afternoon peak hour.

The speed controllers in Original Carrollwood are part of a greater traffic-calming plan approved for the entire Carrollwood area.

From August 2005 to May 2006, the county held public hearings on how to slow speeders. County commissioners adopted the improvements in November 2006.

A study by traffic consultants Volkert & Associates found that 85 percent of drivers drove 5 to 15 mph above the posted speed limits, and that increasing speed enforcement would be ineffective.

The second project covers the Carrollwood Village subdivision on the west side of North Dale Mabry Highway.

The Carrollwood Village segment is estimated at $2.9 million, and the county plans to solicit bids for the project from private contractors in March or April, Halabi said.

A dozen roads running through Carrollwood Village, including Casey Road, West Village Drive and Lowell Road, are slated to have a system of raised crosswalks, speed tables, speed feedback signs, colored intersections and land narrowing.

CLOSURES AND DETOURS

•Lipsey Road is scheduled to be closed from 8:30 a.m. Monday through 5 p.m. Dec. 15 for the construction of a raised intersection. Drivers will be detoured to Cocos, Plumosa and Belmore roads.

•Lipsey Road at the Lake Ridge Road intersection will be closed from 8:30 a.m. Dec. 17 to 5 p.m. Dec. 21 for the construction of a raised intersection. Drivers will be detoured to Belmore Road, Lake Ellen Drive, Gomez Avenue, Graham Lane and Lake Ridge Road.

•Orange Grove Drive, Lake Carroll Way, McFarland Road, Valencia Drive and Carrollwood Drive will have intermittent lane closures through 4 p.m. Feb. 29 for the installation of speed tables and raised crosswalks.

Reporter Elizabeth Lee Brown can be reached at (813) 865-1502 or ebrown@tampatrib.com.

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