Drivers navigating the intersection of Seminole and Park boulevards have spent recent weeks dodging orange cones, heavy equipment, and shifting lane patterns as Pinellas County pushes forward with a long-planned signal overhaul.
The project will replace the intersection’s aging span-wire traffic signals with permanent steel mast arms, eliminate the concrete “half-moon” slip lanes used for right turns, and upgrade drainage and crosswalks. County officials say the target completion date is Nov. 20 — just 10 days before hurricane season officially ends.
Local rumors that the high-volume right-turn lane near the intersection would be eliminated entirely proved unfounded. Pinellas County Public Works confirmed this week that the lane is being reconfigured, not removed. Under the new design, drivers turning right will proceed to the intersection’s stop bar under full signal control rather than merging through the old slip lane.
County officials frame the redesign as a straightforward safety upgrade. The old slip lanes, they say, created uncontrolled pedestrian crossings, since drivers merging into traffic were focused on the road ahead rather than watching for pedestrians on the small concrete corner islands. “Removing the slip lanes and requiring motorists to proceed to the stop bar under signal control improves pedestrian safety by providing a controlled crossing and reducing potential conflicts between pedestrians and turning vehicles,” Public Works said in a statement.
Seminole City Manager Ann Toney-Deal told the city council that much of the disruption drivers are seeing above ground stems from utility work most residents can’t see. Duke Energy has been performing extensive underground electrical work, she said, alongside county efforts to fix localized drainage problems that cause standing water during heavy summer storms.
Deal also cautioned residents against assuming the project will move at the pace of a state highway job. Local and county projects operate under tighter constraints than state-run interstate work, she noted, in part because round-the-clock construction requires paying for off-duty law enforcement details — a cost most municipal budgets can’t absorb the way state transportation coffers can. “I have not noticed many counties in my whole career that do night work,” Deal said. “It’s normally state projects.”
That said, some overnight lane closures will still be necessary for the project’s final stages, including final paving and the crane work required to hoist the steel mast arms into place. The county has not yet announced specific dates for those closures, saying they depend on the contractor’s final schedule.
Skepticism about the timeline surfaced even among city council members, some of whom questioned during a recent meeting whether the contractor will actually hit the Nov. 20 target, given that earlier projections had pointed to a late-summer finish. The county maintains the project remains on schedule, though taxpayers footing the bill for the work may reasonably wonder how firm that date really is, given the slippage already logged.
For now, officials are advising drivers to expect minor delays during ongoing utility work and to prepare for a fully signal-controlled intersection before the holiday season.
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