The surrogate
It begins with a woman who yearns for a baby and another who is willing and able to give her one. You can imagine the motives of the prospective parents. But what about the woman willing to carry a baby, give birth and then walk away?
Friday Night Rewind It doesn't matter which team you cheer for. We've got video previews of every high school football program in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando County.
CLEARWATER — Ever since the new Memorial Causeway Bridge turned Court Street into Clearwater's main route to the beach, the traffic and the pedestrian crossings around the Pinellas County Courthouse have been a bit of a mess.
City officials decided Monday to embark on a $722,000 project to rectify that.
Between November and March, they will reconfigure crosswalks, add turn lanes and adjust the timing of traffic lights on the cluster of roads surrounding the courthouse: Court and Chestnut streets, and Fort Harrison, Osceola and Oak avenues. The county government will pay half the cost.
"We're going to have devices to herd pedestrians to the proper crossing points," city traffic operations manager Paul Bertels told the Clearwater City Council.
The four-month project will:
• Widen the sidewalk in front of the courthouse to 21 from 7 feet on the south side of Court Street.
• Put traffic guards and chains along that sidewalk to channel pedestrians crossing Court Street to two spots at Osceola and Oak avenues.
• Put in dual southbound left-turn lanes from Oak Avenue to Chestnut Street to help clear out the afternoon rush-hour traffic leaving the courthouse.
• Install a traffic light at Court and Osceola to help pedestrians cross Court Street safely. Also, replace an old traffic signal at Court and Oak with a sturdier mast-arm signal.
• Create a pedestrian crossing at Chestnut and Palm Avenue.
• Install a mast-arm traffic signal on Court Street east of Garden Avenue with overhead signs directing drivers into a new arrangement of traffic lanes. Heading west on Court, there will be a right-turn-only lane approaching Fort Harrison Avenue, as well as two through lanes. A fourth lane will be a combination of a through lane and left-turn lane.
Once all of this is done, the city will tweak the timing of traffic signals so that Court and Chestnut streets get a longer green light than Fort Harrison Avenue, which crosses them. That's meant to help beach traffic move through, Bertels said.
City Council members had questions for Bertels. They wanted to make sure all this work would fix their pet peeves regarding traffic around the courthouse.
Paul Gibson wants the traffic lights on Fort Harrison Avenue to be better synchronized. John Doran hopes a right-turn lane from Court Street to Fort Harrison will reduce the number of drivers who race down the right-hand lane of Court and then veer left in front of other cars on Court that have been waiting at that traffic light.
Mayor Frank Hibbard wants to make sure the new traffic signals on Court Street won't slow down spring break beach traffic, which can back up on Court and block Fort Harrison Avenue. "Everything starts to fail, especially between Court and Chestnut, when that gets too loaded," he said.
Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4160.
[Last modified: Oct 01, 2008 05:06 PM]
Comments on this article
by Junior
Oct 1, 2008 5:06 PM
Another total pisspoor planning by this administration. The new bridge should never have ended as short as it did. The flyovers should have been extended onto and off of Court Street in a non-stop manner instead of gumming up traffic at Ft. Harrison.
by Junior
Oct 1, 2008 5:05 PM
Another total pisspoor planning by this administration. The new bridge should never have ended as short as it did. The flyovers should have been extended onto and off of Court Street in a non-stop manner instead of gumming up traffic at Ft. Harrison.
by tim
Sep 30, 2008 3:53 PM
How about tearing down the two big unfinished scientology projects and create a big traffic circle around the courthouse?
by Lisa
Sep 30, 2008 3:33 PM
Utter insanity. There's no money for libraries that benefit our children, but plenty of money for new crosswalks and traffic lights that benefit city workers. City Hall's mantra; RAISE OUR PAY AND PERKS, CUT YOUR SERVICES. Have they no shame?
by Anne
Sep 30, 2008 3:13 PM
It is about time!
by bob
Sep 30, 2008 2:30 PM
they knew this was coming when the people have to go thru town to get to the beach what a no brainer nothing new for clearwater their always 20 yrs behind to figure anything out right.
by JAY
Sep 30, 2008 2:17 PM
This is an interesting article, especially with the use of the words "HERD", Chains, Guards and so on when referring to the Pedestrians who risk their lives trying to cross Court Street. Evidently, the VEHICLE TRAFFIC is not the problem.
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