U.S. Highway 19 - Florida
U.S. 19 is a major north-south U.S. route that begins near Palmetto (Memphis and Bradenton) and travels north through northern Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, ending in Erie. Through Florida, U.S. 19 passes through urban Pinellas County, then connects the Tampa Bay Area with the Suncoast region of Florida.
The St. Petersburg-Clearwater Expressway was proposed as a 20.2-mile freeway that would have originated in downtown St. Petersburg and continue northwest to Clearwater. In fact, this roadway was considered as an Interstate Highway corridor (unnumbered as far as we know) in the 1970s. However, the U.S. 19 freeway not constructed with those funds because of ineligibility for federal Interstate highway funding at that time, and it was officially dropped from plans in 1978.
Notwithstanding the 1970s plan for U.S. 19, a new plan is currently in place to bring U.S. 19 to freeway standards between Pinellas County Route 611 (49th Street North) in St. Petersburg and Florida 580 (Main Street) in Dunedin, north of Clearwater, with all but two segments completed by 2009. There are no current plans to attach this freeway to the existing network of Interstate Highways in Pinellas County, however an upgrade of Pinellas County 296 (Bryan Dairy Road) to freeway standards is planned (the junction with U.S. 19 however will be a single point urban interchange, not a high speed connection).
U.S. 19 Florida Highway Guides
U.S. 19 Florida Alternate Highway Guides
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