PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation may have to wait a little longer to begin a safety improvement project on Drew Street in Clearwater.
The Clearwater Chamber of Commerce and three city council members are questioning if previous studies are still accurate.
This project is seven years in the making, but it came to a bit of a halt when council members, including the mayor, said they wanted to look into conducting a pilot study with striping and signage.
The next step in this process comes with different opinions across the council.
The Clearwater Chamber of Commerce brought forward concerns that the data and modeling have some discrepancies. A spokesperson told ABC Action News they were worried about traffic flow and feel the project plans did not take future development in Clearwater into consideration.
“We found some discrepancies in the numbers, and all the corridors were not taken into account," Mayor Brian Aungst said.
That is when the majority of the council decided to step back and look into conducting the pilot study.
The mayor added that he's not trying to take the project away from citizens, but he wants to make sure it's done right.
“You wanna do this, then in eight to 10 years, five years, rip it all up and spend millions to do that because it didn’t work? Because you didn’t want to do a study upfront and test it?” Mayor Aungst said.
Councilwoman Kathleen Beckman said she feels a test would delay this project. She said the project has already been well-researched and tested.
“I'm a real champion for it. I trust our experts, I don't second guess and this is what residents have been wanting,” Beckman said.
Right now, city staff is looking into how much a study would cost before the council takes a vote on whether or not to approve it.
"We are discussing with the City of Clearwater how to address their concerns and continue to move forward with some improvements to the corridor. We are on hold with the design until we reanalyze the previous study work that was completed," FDOT said.
Read more about FDOT's project plans here.
