Hillsborough County is lining up hundreds of millions in road work aimed at easing congestion around Lithia, FishHawk and Riverview, and residents like Jim Gaffney and Lisa Fevola are already feeling the squeeze; county staff including Eddie Burch are coordinating large intersection upgrades, short-term fixes and a separate widening of Big Bend Road to handle booming growth in south Hillsborough.

Daily commutes through southern Hillsborough County have become more grind than glide as neighborhoods expand and school traffic piles on top of commuter flows. Drivers along Lithia Pinecrest Road report longer backups, stalled intersections and a growing concern about safety as more cars crowd the same corridors. County leaders say a mix of big-picture construction and near-term tweaks will ease the worst pinch points.

At the center of the plan is a proposed $249 million overhaul at the intersection of Lithia Pinecrest Road and County Road 39, one of the busiest crossroads in the area and a frequent bottleneck for people traveling between FishHawk, Lithia and Valrico. The design aims to increase turning capacity and reduce the time drivers sit in line waiting to turn at the light. County planners are pitching changes meant to handle traffic now and set the intersection up for future population increases.

The intersection project calls for several lane reconfigurations to keep traffic moving, including:

• Dual left-turn lanes on both approaches along Lithia Pinecrest Road
• Single left-turn lanes on the County Road 39 approaches
• Single right-turn lanes on all four approaches

Because the full intersection rebuild requires property purchases to widen approaches and extend turn lanes, officials say construction is not expected to begin until 2031. That timeline reflects the time needed for land acquisition, final engineering and the federal and local funding choreography that large projects demand. In the meantime the county is moving forward with smaller, faster improvements to deliver some relief sooner.

One near-term package, budgeted at roughly $450,000, targets immediate bottlenecks with relatively simple changes that can be implemented without major right-of-way work. Proposed measures include adding a northbound left-turn lane on County Road 39 and extending the southbound right-turn lane that feeds into the intersection. These adjustments are intended to shave minutes off peak-period delays and reduce the chances of rear-end crashes caused by sudden stops.

Residents are being asked to weigh in: the county is accepting feedback online through Tuesday and is hosting an in-person meeting for a separate widening project on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Eisenhower Middle School. The Big Bend Road plan, which is tied to the same growth pressures, would convert a four-lane rural roadway from U.S. 41 to Covington Garden Drive into a six-lane urban corridor to handle heavier commuter and commercial traffic. Public comments will help shape final designs and timing for both the immediate fixes and the larger rebuilds.

Local commuters describe day-to-day juggling that reflects how school schedules and development patterns interact with road capacity. “Specific to when the elementary school’s car line starts, when the middle school line starts and when the elementary schools [start],” Gaffney said. He noted that his seven-mile drive from Lithia to Valrico now requires careful timing to avoid long lines of stopped traffic.

Safety worries are front and center for other neighbors. FishHawk resident Lisa Fevola pointed to distracted driving and sudden stops in backups as a recipe for crashes and near misses. “What’s going through my mind is, ‘Oh my God, I hope somebody doesn’t hit me in the back,’” Fevola said. Those everyday safety concerns are a big reason county officials are prioritizing both short-term tweaks and larger, more permanent fixes.

Planners stress the work responds to rapid residential growth across south Hillsborough County, with communities like FishHawk and Riverview adding housing and daily trips that exceed the capacity of older two- and four-lane roads. Hillsborough County Public Works Community Relations Coordinator Eddie Burch has been part of outreach explaining the trade-offs between quick improvements and longer-term construction. Interviews with residents and county planning documents have been used to map how projects will be phased and which corridors get priority funding.