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Straight Fix Sought For Durant Road

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By TOM BRENNAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

VALRICO - When it comes to making Durant Road safer, Hillsborough County officials are thinking small.

Engineers and consultants believe the task can be accomplished with stricter speed enforcement, a little repaving, reshaping of road shoulders and repainting of road warning stripes.

"A lot of it is obvious," said Steven O'Neal, who lives off Durant near Miller Road. "But I still don't understand what they are going to do with the biggest problem."

That problem is the abrupt curve the road takes west of Thames River Place, where many drivers crash and one died after plowing into a house several years ago. That fatal accident prompted the county to do a safety audit on Durant Road and recommend improvements.

O'Neal was one of more than 20 residents who turned out at a meeting last week to hear preliminary recommendations of the safety audit.

Residents wondered why the county can't straighten out the curve or install guardrails or other barriers to protect recently built houses south of the curve. Some supported having the county buy the two houses closest to the curve so the road can be realigned.

It was a matter of space.

"There is just not enough room," said Mike Williams, a county engineer, explaining there's not enough room between the sidewalk and road to install barriers.

There is no money in the county budget to buy the land needed to uncurl the kink.

"The cost would be substantial," Williams said.

Instead, the county is recommending small improvements that together should solve the problem, said Mike McCarthy, director of traffic services for the county's public works department.

McCarthy said the department's plan is to clean up the road shoulder and widen it to give motorists more space to recover when they start drifting off the road. The shoulder work would keep drivers from catching a wheel in a 4-inch drop at the end of the shoulder, which could pull a car or other vehicle off the road.

Scott Friedman, an engineer for consultant URS Corp., which the county hired to conduct the audit, said few motorists obey the recommended 30 mph speed limit through the curve or the 45 mph limit for the rest of the road.

He said drivers might slow down if the 45 mph limit is reduced to 35 and the county installs permanent electronic warning signs well before the curve in both directions, with radar and a sign that displays a vehicle's speed.

Friedman said URS is asking the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to crack down on speeders in the area.

McCarthy said the county is recommending connecting sidewalks to make it safer for students walking to Buckhorn Elementary and Mulrennan Middle schools, and warning stripes on Durant and intersecting roads need to be repainted.

County officials also must work with the owner of a convenience store at the northeast corner of Durant and St. Cloud Avenue to create defined driveways, he said. Now, McCarthy said, drivers use all parts of the store's open parking lot.

He said it is the county's policy to try progressive improvements.

"We try to solve the problem the least expensive way we can," he said, noting that if the recommended improvements don't work, the county will consider more expensive approaches.

O'Neal and his neighbors are not convinced reshaping, repaving and repainting will work.

"It all depends on a person's compliance with the law," he said. "We can't have deputies out there 24/7."

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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