Before & After: N. Sunlake Blvd. - Pasco County, FL

When WGI began designing N. Sunlake Boulevard in 2019, the land south of SR 52 in central Pasco County was largely wetlands and open ground. Drivers crossing the county had two through routes, SR 52 and SR 54, and the Ridge Road extension was still years from reaching this area. The 6,200+ acre Angeline master-planned community was on its way, along with a new Moffitt Cancer Center campus, and neither could take shape without a road through the property and the water and sewer lines to support it. WGI worked with Len-Angeline, LLC and Pasco County to design that corridor.

A Site Waiting on a Road

The planned route ran through wetlands for much of its length, on soils that varied from one crossing to the next. Part of it passed through the North Pasco (Starkey) to Connerton Ecological Corridor, where wildlife regulations set specific requirements for anything built across the land. The schedule added its own pressure, because home builders, a new school, and the Moffitt campus all needed to reach their sites while the road itself was still under design and construction. As a result, the corridor had to protect the land it crossed and keep the development around it moving at the same time.

From Open Wetlands to a Connected Corridor

Our team carried the alignment over the wetlands instead of filling them, placing 11 bridge structures at the designated crossings. Each one uses concrete Florida-I beams on 24-inch prestressed piles, and the substructures were designed for scour to suit the wetland conditions below. Bridge No. 5, inside the ecological corridor, provides the 10 feet of dry vertical clearance that local wildlife regulations require. WGI’s geospatial team supported the work with aerial data mapping of the bridges and roads as they were built.

Access came first for the builders. WGI designed, detailed, and permitted a network of unpaved haul routes around the site, and contractors on the surrounding homes, school, and campus used them to keep working before the boulevard opened.

Service for Every Neighborhood

The road also became the backbone for Angeline’s utilities. WGI’s Water + Environment team designed 5.2 miles of water, reclaimed water, and wastewater main lines within the N. Sunlake right-of-way. Those lines serve the overall development and give private neighborhoods their connection from the boulevard, including Phase 2A, with its 590 single-family homes on about 430 acres. Drainage followed the same long view, with curb inlets carrying stormwater through pipes and swales to management facilities beside the road.

A Road the Community Can Use

Today, 4.5 miles of new roadway run south from SR 52 past Ridge Road, linking the county’s northern east-west route to its newest one. WGI’s Transportation team gave residents room to walk and ride along it, with five-foot bike lanes, a six-foot sidewalk on one side, and a 12-foot multi-use path on the other. At the north end, we helped Pasco County through the approval of a local funding agreement with FDOT District 7 for intersection improvements at SR 52, which added turn lanes, pedestrian improvements, lighting, and a traffic signal.

The Community That Followed

Seven years after design began, the open ground along N. Sunlake is an address. Angeline has residents in its first neighborhoods and is planned to reach about 35,000 people, with roughly 3,600 of its acres set aside as green space. Angeline Academy of Innovation, Pasco County’s $52.7 million STEM magnet school, sits just west of the boulevard and welcomed its first students in August 2023.

The largest change is still arriving. In January 2026, Moffitt opened the 120,000-square-foot Moffitt Speros Outpatient Center, the first building on its 775-acre Speros FL campus. Patients who once traveled to Tampa for cancer care now have an option in Pasco County, and the campus is planned to grow to 140 buildings and 2,400 direct jobs by 2033.

See the Impact WGI Can Make

N. Sunlake was built with room for what comes next. The two-lane divided section can expand to four and six lanes, and the drainage system was designed for all future phases, so the widening Pasco County needs can happen without starting over.

Learn more about how WGI approaches transportation projects with real community impact and connect with our team today.