Right now, no lefts at GreyHawk entrance

Florida Department of Transportation officials are making an exception to their rules because safety improvements are needed immediately at the intersection of GreyHawk Boulevard-Pope Road and State Road 64.

On Feb. 26, contractors installed curbing in the median opening of S.R. 64 that will prevent those entering the roadway from either GreyHawk Boulevard or Pope Road from making a left  turn.

Eastbound drivers on S.R. 64 still may turn left into GreyHawk, and westbound drivers on S.R. 64 may turn left on Pope Road. No cars may stack in the center of the intersection waiting to turn.

“What we’ve seen is cars end up stacking in the median and they block each other’s views,” FDOT spokesman Zachary Burch said. “They end up guessing when they can go. We feel like it’s going to be a major safety improvement.”

FDOT will hold a public hearing April 17 for residents to hear about the median modification and share concerns and ideas for improving safety until FDOT builds a roundabout there in 2024.

Normally, FDOT holds the public hearing before it makes changes to alter access from medians, and the state approval process for such a change would take at least six months.

“In this instance, we’ve determined that because of the number of crashes and the severity of crashes, we don’t want to wait for that time frame to make this important safety improvement,” Burch said.