New Traffic Signals Installed at Busy West Villages Intersection

NORTH PORT (WWSB) - The City of North Port is the fastest growing city on the Suncoast – primarily due to the West Villages development.

Normally, growth means more traffic, so when people who live in that community asked for help dealing with all the new traffic…they got it! There are now traffic signals on Tamiami Trail and Corradino Boulevard.

"It was just nuts, and we had so many accidents all the time. It's a wonder that no one was killed. Really, that's how bad it was," Kris Marra, a resident at Island Walk, explained.

The four-way intersection finally got the green light in hopes that it will ease the congestion of cars driving down the busy roadway. Especially because in just a few short months, the Atlanta Braves Spring Training Complex will be completed - with games bringing in even more people and traffic.

The road improvements in this area aren’t stopping here. In about thirty days, there will be additional stop lights added to another intersection on Tamiami Trail. This time, where it crosses with West Villages Parkway - which is where the West Villages Marketplace, with dozens of restaurants and shops, is being built.

“We’re paying for this. It’s not being funded by state dollars or being funded by local government. The developer is paying his fair share to bring this infrastructure at the time it’s needed for development. It’s not coming after. It’s coming when it’s needed,” Marty Black, the Chairman for West Villages who is in charge of the improvement district, told us.

Officials from West Villages also tell us this is all part of their master plan to keep up with not only the growth, but the safety of its residents. They will also be putting in additional turn lanes, new paving, and updating the pedestrian crosswalks.

“Some people think it might take a little bit longer to get out, but in the long wrong, just preventing accidents is the number one priority,” Marra said.

The new traffic signals and all the improvements to the intersection on Tamiami Trail and West Villages Parkway is scheduled to be completed by mid-February.

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