Sheldon Road, Waters Avenue Intersection Construction to Begin

If you frequently use the intersection of Sheldon Road and Waters Avenue your life will soon become easier. But it'll get a little harder first.

The Hillsborough County Public Works Department will begin construction at the busy intersection on Sept. 12, said Steve Valdez, public works spokesman.

The project will add a left-turn lane and a continuous right-turn lane on West Waters Avenue to northbound Sheldon Road. A right-turn lane will be added to northbound traffic on Sheldon Road and the left turn lane will be lengthened. The left-turn lane for southbound traffic on Sheldon Road will also be lengthened. New signalization will be added to the turning lanes.

"We're redesigning it so we can handle more traffic in those right and left queues," Valdez said. "There's a tremendous amount of traffic and it moves very well, but it's the traffic that has to turn that's causing traffic to back up from the queue lane into the regular lane."

The almost $2-million project should take about 120 days to be complete. The majority of the work will be done at night, said William Alford, county project manager for the project.

"The impact on traffic during the day, we're trying to make that very minimal," Alford said. "Between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. is when predominately the lanes will be extended."

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