TOWN ‘N’ COUNTRY — A short portion of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail closed Jan. 7 for replacement of a large culvert damaged during hurricanes Helene and Milton in October 2024.
The closed section is east of Sheldon Road and north of the Channel A waterway near West Waters Avenue. The repair area will be clearly marked, and trail users will not be allowed on the closed portion until work is complete. The county did not provide a completion date in a news release. The section is expected to be closed for several weeks, though weather and other factors could affect the schedule.
The nearest trailheads are at 9201 W. Waters Ave. and 10338 Wilsky Blvd. Several neighborhood trail access points also exist between the two trailheads.
The Upper Tampa Bay Trail is 11.45 miles of paved multi-use trail in two sections with multiple trailhead access points. It winds along Channel A in the south starting just north of Memorial Highway, then heads north through Town ‘N’ Country, near Westchase, Citrus Park, Odessa and beyond. The trail continues north from Van Dyke Road and then east to the trailhead on Lutz Lake Fern Road, connecting to the Suncoast Trail at the Veterans Expressway.
A 2-mile gap in the trail remains between Peterson and Van Dyke roads. A study is underway to determine the most feasible trail route to close the gap.
About 300,000 visitors use the Upper Tampa Bay Trail annually for walking, jogging, biking, and inline skating. The trail also provides access to off-trail hiking at the county’s Brooker Creek Headwaters and Town ‘N’ Country nature preserves.
The trail was built along a defunct railroad route — Tampa Gulf Coast Railway — engineered by W.P. Lutz, an Odessa sawmill owner, in 1909. By 1915, the railway scheduled three daily round trips with stops in Keystone, Gulf Pine, Lake Fern and Cosme, and operated until the 1960s.
The county has made several improvements to this central section of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail in the Town ‘N’ Country, Westchase and Citrus Park areas during the past 18 months.
A four-lane bridge in front of the Northwest County Solid Waste Facility at 8001 W. Linebaugh Ave. also sustained significant damage and required bridge and guardrail repairs involving several utilities and departments. Crews reinforced the banks around the bridge and fixed sidewalks, with portions removed and replaced in 2025.
In June, the county unveiled a $2.2 million bridge on the trail that replaced a 112-year-old wooden bridge that deemed unstable in 2024.
“(Rocky Creek Bridge) is one of 279 bridges maintained and under Hillsborough County Public Works,” District 2 County Commissioner Ken Hagan, who has served since 2002, said at the time. “And (Upper Tampa Bay Trail) is an important trail to the county, a popular one to the community.”
Hagan also announced in June that $7 million had been secured for a $10 million project to connect the Upper Tampa Bay Trail to the Suncoast Trail through Hillsborough to Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.