Ronele Drive in Ruskin will shut down to all through traffic starting Saturday, Aug. 15, at 7 a.m. as crews begin installing a segment of the South Hillsborough Pipeline.
The road and its sidewalk will be fully closed, according to a project update posted Aug. 11. Construction will begin near South Kings Avenue and move eastward toward John Moore Road, with crews working Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays as needed.
Drivers who use Ronele Drive as a cut-through will need to reroute. The official detour runs along South Kings Avenue, Bloomingdale Avenue and John Moore Road.
Residents who live on Ronele Drive can still reach their driveways from John Moore Road while crews work near South Kings Avenue. As the pipeline installation progresses east, access will flip to South Kings Avenue instead. The project team said Ronele Drive will be restored with a temporary drivable surface as work moves along.
El Greco Road will stay open to local traffic at Ronele Drive only until active construction reaches that intersection.
More closures in the pipeline corridor
The Ronele Drive work is part of a broader wave of closures tied to Tampa Bay Water's pipeline, the largest project in the agency's history. The 26-mile, 3-to-5-foot-diameter line will carry up to 65 million gallons of drinking water per day from the regional treatment plant in Brandon to south-central Hillsborough County, serving a population projected to double in Apollo Beach by 2050.
Separately, North Kings Avenue closed at Victoria Street on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 6 a.m. for pipeline construction, the Osprey Observer reported. Open-trench work on Victoria Street will continue eastward over the next few months, and North Knights Avenue and North Moon Avenue are expected to close at Victoria Street in the coming weeks.
South Kings Avenue also remains closed nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. between Ronele Drive and Bloomingdale Avenue. That night closure was expected to continue through Aug. 15.
As we reported July 30, South Kings Avenue had already been reduced to one lane in each direction for pipeline work.
Residents with questions can contact the project team at (813) 485-6480 or [email protected].
