U.S. 41 improvements will accommodate heavier Port Manatee loads

U.S. 41 improvements will accommodate heavier Port Manatee loads

PORT MANATEE -- A $17 million road construction project that started two weeks ago is expected to make for safer travel on a stretch of U.S. 41 that is seeing growth in truck traffic.

Nearly five miles of the highway between Interstate 275 and the Hillsborough County line will be repaved over the next year, with special attention going to a stretch in front of Port Manatee. To accommodate a heavier volume of trucks entering and leaving the port, the Florida Department of Transportation will rebuild two-thirds of a mile of the asphalt road with concrete. The area will also get extra lighting.

The improvements come just months after port tenant and fuel supply company Transmontaigne began running about 60 trucks a day between its fuel depot there and RaceTrac filling stations throughout Southwest Florida. Construction crews are also expected to be finished by the time Air Products, a maker of natural gas liquifiers, is ready to move its first product through the port in 2016.

Air Products opened a factory across the street from the port in January 2014. Its liquifiers can weigh more than 600 tons.

Traffic to and from the port is rebounding from pre-recession days. In 2014, 2,000 vehicles a day entered and exited Piney Point Road, the port's northern access point. Though down from a 14-year peak of 4,200 in 2001, traffic is picking up as the port captures more international and local business.

George Isiminger, the port's planning director, said the port and industrial operations nearby need a beefier roadway to take heavy loads. Port officials had previously expressed this need to FDOT.

"I do know they were aware we had talked in the past about the need for a heavy haul route," he said.

Statistics compiled by port security showed over 41,000 trucks entering the port during a recent six-month period.

Lauren Hatchell, an FDOT project spokesperson for the road project, said "hardening" roadways where heavy trucks enter and exit a highway is something her agency has done elsewhere to extend road life. A concrete road can last upwards of 30 years, three times longer than asphalt.

Overall daily traffic on the stretch of U.S. 41 under construction is on the rise. Southbound traffic grew 10 percent between 2010 and 2014. Northbound traffic jumped 14 percent during the same five-year period.

In all, a daily average of just over 19,000 vehicles traveled the stretch in front of the port in 2014. Of that total, 2,200 were trucks.

Other improvements being made along the length of the project include the addition of 18 new light poles and the construction of a stoplight at the end of the westbound exit ramp off I-275. The signal will regulate traffic that currently enters northbound U.S. 41 via a yield lane and southbound lanes of the highway via an intersection controlled by a stop sign.

Hatchell said traffic impacts will be limited during the project. Much of the paving work will be done at night. The most significant roadway change during the 375-day construction schedule will be in front of Port Manatee, where drivers will be diverted into two-lane, two-way traffic to allow road contractors room to rebuild that section of road.

The speed limit on the road has been lowered to 50 mph from 60 during the project time frame.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 2:54 PM with the headline "U.S. 41 improvements will accommodate heavier Port Manatee loads ."