Pasco County drives $128M in highway work

TAMPA — Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced two road-widening projects along Interstate 75 in Pasco County worth $128.6 million.

The two projects are scheduled to take more than five years and should support 400 jobs in the Tampa area, according to a release. Designed to address the growing transportation needs of the area, the projects will add two lanes of the interstate in each direction to three.

“Today we are announcing that not only are we advancing the projects by five years, but we are starting construction in just two weeks,” Scott says in a press release. “Funding these widening projects will create more job opportunities and improve mobility and connectivity.”

Work is set to begin later this month on a 7.8-mile stretch of I-75 just north of State Road 52 to the Pasco-Hernando county line. In May, construction crews will begin work on an additional 6.7-mile segment of the interstate, from north of County Road 54 to north of S.R. 52. This portion of the project also involves major work on S.R. 52, including a 1.6-mile widening to six lanes.

Both projects are design-build, where a single company is assigned responsibility for both the design and construction. The projects are part of the continued expansion of I-75 to six lanes from the Georgia state line to the Tampa Bay region.