Upper Tampa Bay Trail Expansion Planned

Upper Tampa Bay Trail lovers can rejoice.

The Hillsborough County Commission recently voted to include project costs in the proposed 2013 budget for a trail extension that would add more than four miles to the recreational corridor. The $4-million expansion would connect the Upper Tampa Bay Trail to the Suncoast Trail, which runs alongside the Suncoast Parkway through several neighboring counties.

The extension would begin at Lutz Lake Fern Road by the Suncoast Parkway and extend west a mile, then south through Brooker Creek Preserve ending at Van Dyke Road. The extension totals 4.35 miles.

The extension has been in the works for five years, with neighbors and trail users petitioning the board for the project.

"It’s all part of a long range plan, it’s an existing trail south of there that starts down at Old Memorial through Westchase so this is part of that same trail," said Richard Sanders, county project manager. "We’re trying to make this one continuous trail."

The project is expected to begin soon and be complete by mid-2014, Sanders said.

Alan Snel, director of the South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers, said the trail extension will provide more safe options for bikers in the county and beyond.

"People in Hillsborough County want and need not only safe places to ride a bicycle but also pleasant places to ride a bicycle," Snel said.

The extension will create the longest continuous paved trail in the state, Snel said.

The trail will likely "draw thousands of bicyclists of all backgrounds from not only Hillsborough County but from all over the state of Florida and even the United States," he said.

In addition to the extra miles of trail, a restroom, picnic pavilion and bicycle racks will be installed at a trail head facility on Lutz Lake Fern Road.

The current parking facility beside Suncoast Parkway will more than double in size going from 25 parking spaces to 55 spaces, Sanders said.