Parrish residents impatient for traffic signal on U.S. 301 at Fort Hamer Road

PARRISH -- Improvements to Fort Hamer Road -- work being done in conjunction with the Fort Hamer Bridge project -- should be completed by the end of 2015.

But the traffic signal planned for Fort Hamer Road and its intersection with U.S. 301 can't come soon enough for Parrish residents.

"That intersection is very dangerous," Alla Levin, owner of The Cake Zone, said Thursday.

Last week, one of her bakers was involved in a serious three-car crash at the intersection. Levin calls the intersection poorly designed and poorly marked.

Concern in Parrish about the intersection is long-standing.

"You cannot determine the speed of oncoming cars. Drivers are going to pull out there and get T-boned," Norma Kennedy, president of the Parrish Arts Council, told the Bradenton Herald in July 2014. "You are taking your life in your hands."

Another resident called the intersection, where Fort Hamer Road meets U.S. 301 on a sweeping curve, a "two-headed snake."

A contract has been let to install a traffic signal at the intersection, and the county is awaiting the posting of a performance bond by the contractor, Florida Safety Contractors, said Ron Schulhofer, Manatee County public works director.

Once the bond is posted, the county can give the contractor a notice to proceed. From that date, the contractor would have four months to complete the project, Schulhofer said. "We anticipate receiving that bond in the next few days," Schulhofer said Thursday. "We have the same concern the residents do. We live out that way, too."

Fort Hamer Road was realigned at U.S. 301 directly south of 121st Avenue East. Total cost of the intersection project was $4.44 million.

In addition to the work being done on Fort Hamer Road, the contractor has started drainage work along Upper Manatee River Road, said Trudy Gerena, spokeswoman for the bridge and road project.

By the end of December, drainage, sidewalks and the first lift of asphalt on Fort Hamer Road should be completed, Gerena said. In all, bridge construction and road improvements will cost $32.69 million.

Starting in November, construction crews will begin pouring the first decks of what will become the driving surface on the bridge.

Once the first decks are poured, construction crews will have an additional surface from which to work to extend the bridge south across the Manatee River toward Upper Manatee River Road, Gerena said.

Cranes have been working from a temporary trestle running parallel to the bridge.

Work on the two-lane bridge is expected to be completed in early 2017, effectively linking Parrish and Lakewood Ranch. The roadwork is also expected to accelerate the pace of building new Parrish neighborhoods, especially along Moccasin Wallow Road.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter @jajones1.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 11:55 PM with the headline "Parrish residents impatient for traffic signal on U.S. 301 at Fort Hamer Road ."