The Dade City Bypass Is Finished: FDOT Wraps $43.9M US 98 Widening With Four Lanes and Two Roundabouts

The years-long detours, lane shifts and construction cones along the Dade City Bypass are over. The Florida Department of Transportation says all work on the US 98 (Dade City Bypass) widening was completed as of July 22, 2026, delivering four lanes, two roundabouts, new traffic signals and sidewalks along a 1.6-mile stretch that thousands of local drivers use to get across town every day.

The $43.9 million design-build project widened US 98 from two lanes to four between 7th Street South and 7th Street North. For families who have spent the last two-plus years navigating temporary traffic patterns and, at times, detours through downtown, the finished corridor changes how you move around Dade City for good.

What changed on the bypass

Beyond the extra travel lanes, the biggest day-to-day differences are the intersections. According to FDOT's project information, the completed work includes:

• Two new roundabouts — one at 7th Street South and one at Old Lakeland Highway.
• New traffic signals at the Meridian Avenue, 7th Street North and River Road intersections.
• An improved signal at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
• New sidewalks on both sides of the highway, adding a safer route for people walking and rolling along the corridor.

Because this was a design-build contract, the contractor — Cone & Graham, Inc. — was responsible for finalizing the design plans and constructing the improvements. The design phase began in March 2023, and construction started in late January 2024.

How to drive the new roundabouts

Roundabouts are still relatively new to a lot of Dade City drivers, and the two on the bypass are the part of this project most likely to trip people up in the first few weeks. FDOT offers straightforward guidance for handling them safely.

A corridor locals watched come together in stages

The bypass didn't finish all at once. It opened piece by piece, which is part of why the "is it done yet?" question lingered for so long. Here's how the key milestones lined up, according to FDOT's project updates.

Why it matters for Dade City

The bypass carries a heavy share of the traffic that would otherwise cut through the heart of Dade City. Widening it to four lanes is designed to move more vehicles with fewer backups, while the roundabouts are intended to keep traffic flowing through the intersections instead of stacking up at red lights.

For pedestrians, the new sidewalks on both sides fill in gaps along a stretch of highway that was never comfortable to walk. And with construction finally behind them, drivers can stop planning around lane shifts and downtown detours that became a fact of life during the build.

Give yourself a little extra patience at the two roundabouts while everyone gets used to the new pattern — and expect the flow to smooth out as the corridor settles into everyday use.

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Header photo: Ebyabe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)