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RODNEY THRASHA further analysis of Morris Bridge Road's condition leads the county to drop it from the network for trucks with three or more axles.
NEW TAMPA - On second thought, maybe 18-wheelers and Morris Bridge Road don't mix.
Less than a month after holding a series of educational meetings in Brandon, Keystone, Ruskin and New Tampa, the architects of a proposed countywide network of truck routes now say they erred when they recommended that Morris Bridge Road become a part of that system.
"We have decided to remove our recommendation that it be a truck route," said Bruce McCall, a project manager with the county's planning and growth management division.
Officials changed their minds after the county's public works chief wrote a Dec. 8 memo highlighting the road's numerous structural flaws - deficiencies county officials weren't made aware of until this year.
In Hillsborough County, trucks with three or more axles must use a network of designated roads. Every three years since 1995, the county has reviewed its truck route plan. In October, the County Commission directed staffers to review the plan a year early.
The proposal would have affected the two-lane road, from Interstate 75 to the Hillsborough-Pasco County line.
When the proposal was announced last month, officials said allowing trucks onto Morris Bridge Road would reduce the volume of truck traffic on residential streets. However, the move left truckers and residents perplexed. They said Morris Bridge Road was too narrow and already too congested to handle more vehicles. And they worried that a stream of 18-wheelers would create all kinds of pollution hazards from loud noises to foul odors.
In a memo this month, Department of Public Works director Robert Gordon sided with the truckers and residents.
Structurally, Morris Bridge Road is not reliable, he wrote. More trucks would lead to more wear and tear on the road and "inordinately high maintenance costs," he wrote.
Two bridges - one over New River, the other over Busy Branch - were built so long ago that they are now "functionally obsolete," Gordon wrote. Both were built in 1961 without shoulders. Trucks that need to pull over for repairs or other emergencies would have been out of luck on Morris Bridge.
McCall said the county didn't recognize the deficiencies sooner because the last time Morris Bridge Road was evaluated was 1994. A decade ago, the road was fine.
Since then, Cross Creek Boulevard opened between Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Morris Bridge Road. "We were afraid we'd have a lot of trucks running back and forth on Cross Creek, which is less desirable than Morris Bridge Road because it goes through the heart of the residential area," McCall said, explaining why the county chose Morris Bridge Road in the first place.
"Initially, we had recommended it be a truck route because it was forcing trucks to have to make a 25-mile detour in place of a 1-mile trip."
Whether county officials ever designate Morris Bridge Road a truck route remains to be seen.
"We probably won't look at it again unless it's vastly improved," he said.
There are no plans now to improve the road and correct the deficiencies, McCall said.
- Rodney Thrash can be reached at 269-5313 or rthrash@sptimes.com