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Crosstown firm staying on job

URS Corp., which was blamed for problems with a Tampa elevated roadway, will remain on the project.

By JEAN HELLER
Published January 25, 2005

TAMPA - In something of an about-face Monday, the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority asked the company it blames for last year's partial collapse of the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway to stay on and finish the job.

"There is continuity in that decision," said Ralph Mervine, the authority's interim executive director.

Tom Logan, regional vice president of URS Corp., which was replaced - and then not replaced - as the general engineering consultant on the 6-mile elevated lane project, said his company would remain on the job.

Yet both sides made it clear they were not relinquishing the right to face each other down in court if their differences over who is liable for the project's problems cannot be resolved in mediation next summer. The development, coming at a regular authority board meeting, met with no opposition.

The latest twist in the construction project comes as the Florida Department of Transportation reviews two opposing views of what needs to be done to fix the $350-million bridge, part of a three-lane reversible commuter project between Brandon and Tampa.

FDOT is trying to decide if the safest and most economical fix is the plan put forth last week by Ardaman & Associates, the soils consultant to the authority, which envisions repairs of about 75 percent of the bridge's 214 underground support columns, or the plan from URS, which recommends repairs to fewer than 20. Or perhaps something in between.

Logan said both plans are based on the same geotechnical data about the quality and composition of the soils beneath the bridge.

"It's a difference of opinion on application (of the data) and how to move forward," he said.

Mervine said he expected to get an indication which way FDOT was leaning by Friday with a "concurrence" on one plan or the other by Monday.

"This raises the possibility that even if FDOT prefers Ardaman, URS will implement that plan," he said.

There is so much political juice swirling around the project and its problems, including attention from FDOT Secretary Jose Abreau and Gov. Jeb Bush, it is widely anticipated that FDOT officials will lean toward the more conservative approach and go with the Ardaman plan or something close to it.

Members of the authority board have said repeatedly that everything possible must be done to assure the public of the safety of the structure.

Uncertain in all of this is the future role for another engineering company, HNTB, which was chosen by the board last month to be the authority's new general engineering consultant.

Mervine said Monday that while Ardaman would directly oversee future work done on the bridge by URS, HNTB would be available for consultation if needed and would serve as the authority's engineering consultant on future projects.

But because FDOT has all but taken over the Interstate 4 connector project, which will tie the highway to the Port of Tampa, the Expressway Authority has no other projects in the offing.

Meanwhile, the ground-level portions of the Crosstown have recovered from the revenue shortfalls caused by the collapse last April of a section of the elevated roadway near 50th Street and from closures prompted by summer hurricanes.

Revenue in December exceeded $2.4-million, up 13 percent from December 2003.

[Last modified January 25, 2005, 01:17:11]