Pinellas County wants $148 million in state and federal grants to widen East Lake Road to six lanes and redesign a Keystone Road intersection where two people have died in crashes.
County commissioners voted unanimously to apply for a $140 million Florida Department of Transportation grant to widen East Lake Road from Curlew Road to Trinity Boulevard, according to Tampa Bay Beacons. In a separate unanimous vote, they approved seeking a $7.96 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant for safety work at the Keystone Road/East Lake Road intersection.
Local taxpayers would cover about $37 million of the total cost through Penny for Pinellas, the countywide 1% sales tax that Clearwater-area residents pay on everyday purchases. The county's share breaks down to roughly $35 million for the widening and $1.99 million for the Keystone Road project.
What changes on East Lake Road
The 9.3-mile corridor already has six lanes from Curlew Road to Tampa Road but narrows to four divided lanes from Tampa Road north to Trinity Boulevard. The original road design included a wide median specifically to accommodate future expansion.
The full widening project carries an estimated $175 million price tag. Beyond adding lanes, the county plans intelligent transportation systems, retimed traffic signals, monitoring cameras, dynamic message signs and real-time data sharing through the Pinellas County Traffic Management Center.
Pinellas County Public Works Director Kelli Hammer Levy said the project aims to accommodate current and future traffic demand while improving safety conditions along the corridor.
Keystone Road: a deadly hot spot
The Keystone Road/East Lake Road intersection sits on the county's High-Injury Network, a designation covering just 4% of Pinellas roadways but accounting for 60% of all fatal and serious-injury crashes. Two fatalities and 15 crashes have been recorded at the intersection, with rear-end collisions making up more than 60% of fatal and injury crashes there, according to a county staff report.
The redesign, already at 30% engineering, would add turn lanes and through-lane capacity on both roads, extend left-turn storage, improve signal timing, upgrade street lighting and crosswalks, and improve emergency vehicle access to East Lake Fire and Rescue Station 58, which sits directly east of the intersection.
"We have over 100 people a year on average die in Pinellas County, just moving around," Forward Pinellas active transportation planner Kyle Simpson told FOX13News in February. "That's not acceptable, and so we're trying to reverse that trend and bring it down."
When could construction start?
Not soon.
The FDOT widening grant would cover fiscal years 2031 through 2036, and the East Lake Road segment is slated for "Penny 5," the next round of Penny for Pinellas funding after the county's current six-year capital plan. Neither agency has announced when it will decide on the grants.
The Keystone Road project, with its design already 30% complete, could move faster if the federal grant comes through, though no construction date has been set. Residents can track updates on the county's East Lake Road Corridor project page.
