Ed Ward of St. Andrews Estates in Sun City Center recently wrote me about the difficulty he has entering the intersection of State Road 674 and Stoneham/El Rancho drives. (It’s called Stoneham on the south side of State Road 674 and El Rancho on the north.) Recently retired from his position as postal clerk at the Ruskin post office, Ed is no stranger to traffic.
Lately though, exiting his neighborhood has been frightening.
“Difficult is the only word to try and explain trying to enter or cross State Road 674 from here,” Ed writes. “And when the new Wal-Mart opens (at the intersection of State Road 674 and U.S. 301, about a block from Stoneham/El Rancho) it will be impossible. We have had several accidents there lately, including some involving golf carts. I’m suggesting we get a traffic light as this would be the only cross street between I-75 and U.S. 301 without a single light to control the traffic. It’s an Indy-500 speedway.”
I set out to discover if there was any answer to Ed’s plight, beginning with a call to Robert Kouveras, a senior engineer with Hillsborough County Traffic Operations.
Because State Road 674 is a state road, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Transportation to decide if a signal is needed, Robert said. Once erected, however, the county maintains the signals on state roads.
“We both (the state and county) follow the same guidelines, though we call them warrants” he said. “They’re part of the federal highway standards that you must meet, like how many accidents there are at a certain spot.”
Unless warranted because of accidents or other predetermined criteria, signals cannot be closer than one-half mile from each other, he said.
What residents must do is get together and gather information about the intersection, then present a “case” to the FDOT to get a signal in a spot such as the one that concerns Ed.
“Warrants are not easy to meet,” Robert said.
But the news he gave me was not all bad. He said Wal-Mart is paying for and erecting a signal light at its main entrance, which will be about a third of a mile north of the U.S. 301 and State Road 674 intersection. Wal-Mart has already completed the site plans for this signal. Construction is expected to be completed before the store’s opening in April.
u Write to me with your concerns and questions about South Shore’s roads and traffic at 3032 College Ave., Ruskin, FL 33570 or e-mail me at with “Road Raves” in the subject line.
Penny Fletcher is the editor of The Sun.