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Port Tampa

Residents sick of rumble, rush on Interbay Boulevard

They want the stretch from Manhattan Avenue to West Shore Boulevard to be truck-free.

By SHERRI DAY
Published February 25, 2005

Homeowners in Port Tampa plan to ask city officials to remove part of Interbay Boulevard as a city truck route.

It is a necessary step to protect children and pedestrians from the nearly 1,400 commercial trucks that bustle through the neighborhood every day, the residents argue.

Residents plan to target Interbay from Manhattan Avenue to West Shore Boulevard. Instead of traveling that section, truck drivers could still access the area using Dale Mabry Highway or West Shore Boulevard.

"Why is Interbay still a truck route?" said Chris Malzone, a director in Port Tampa's civic association. "We need to change that. That needs to become a neighborhood road."

Homeowners raised the issue Tuesday night at the final public meeting for the Port Tampa truck study, a $50,000 project funded by the city of Tampa to explore ways to lessen commercial traffic in the neighborhood.

Officials from URS Corp. began the study in 2003. Planners surveyed the neighborhood and consulted residents to form recommendations to take to city officials.

So far, the community's suggestions range from the highly improbable - a $65-million bridge that connects Commerce Street to the Gandy Bridge - to traffic calming and speed enforcement on Interbay Boulevard. URS's recommendations include short- and long-term projects, such as increasing police patrols and installing sidewalks and marked pedestrian crossings.

Planners hope their suggestions will please Port Tampa's residents and local businesses.

"There is no real easy solution to any of this," URS transportation planner Martin A. Peate told residents. "The business community has been in Port Tampa as long as the neighborhood has."

Port Tampa residents can continue to submit proposed solutions until March 11, Peate said. After that, URS will give its findings to Tampa city officials for funding consideration.

Meanwhile, Port Tampa residents are readying their strategy to ban truck traffic on parts of Interbay Boulevard. They might borrow a tactic from homeowners in Swann Estates, who got a city promise for speed tables after waging a vocal street campaign.

"As an association, we need to be diligent and get out there," said Margaret S. Hamrick, the civic association's acting president. "The squeaky wheel gets the money. I'll be out there to hold signs. We'll do that if that's what it takes."

Sherri Day can be reached at 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 24, 2005, 09:35:09]