LAND O’ LAKES — Drivers counting on the Ridge Road extension will be waiting longer.
Pasco County has pushed back the opening of Phase 2 of the project — the 3.75-mile stretch running east-west from North Sunlake Boulevard to Land O’ Lakes Boulevard/U.S. 41 — to early summer 2027. Two lanes will open then, with all four expected by early 2028, said Panos Kontses, the county’s interim transportation engineering director.
The delay stems from a railroad bridge. Crews are “experiencing some schedule impacts as we work through the required clearance process for the bridge construction over the CSX Railroad,” the county’s Transportation Engineering Department told the Land O’ Lakes Beacon. The CSX line runs north-south, parallel to Land O’ Lakes Boulevard/U.S. 41.
The $85 million project, which began in 2024, will add a 5-foot sidewalk, a 12-foot multiuse path, 5-foot bike lanes, a 24-inch water main and a 20-inch reclaimed water main.
Phase 2 will form a new intersection with Connerton Boulevard, which completed its own 1.1-mile extension to Ehren Cutoff in March 2025.
It is the second extension of Ridge Road. The $104 million first phase carried the road from Moon Lake Road past the Suncoast Parkway in 2021 and added a new parkway exit — one serving the Angeline School of Innovation, the Moffitt Speros campus, an apartment complex and a back entrance to the sprawling Angeline community, which is eventually expected to house about 35,000 residents.