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Week in review

PRICY EAST-WEST ROAD - Nearly five years ago, Tampa's transportation chief announced that the cost of a proposed roadway offering direct access to Interstate 275 from New Tampa had shrunk from $30-million to less than $18-million. Since then, the cost has changed at least five times. But the Florida Turnpike Enterprise's projection has bested them all.

By Times Staff Writer
Published April 3, 2005

"We're estimating ... $130- to $140-million," turnpike spokeswoman Joanne Hurley said.

It was the one finding that emerged last week from the toll authority's study of the 3-mile highway. Last year, the turnpike, which operates the Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway, expressed an interest in partnering with Tampa to build the East-West Road.

Proponents of the project have contended for years that a connector road is necessary to take cars off gridlocked Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, but city officials have never figured out where they would get the money to build it.

Hurley would not give any more specifics of the agency's study, saying she wants to meet first with the city on April 22.

Just eight months earlier, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said the road would cost nearly $96-million.

Hurley did say there's a shortage of building materials such as concrete and steel. The longer it takes to get those materials, the higher the price.

SCHOOL OPENING IS TARDY - More than 730 students expected to walk into a sprawling $7.7-million elementary school in Live Oak Preserve in August. But when school opens next summer, Hilda Turner Elementary students won't have a campus to call their own. Instead, they will spend the first four months of the school year crammed into spare classrooms and outdoor portables more than 6 miles away at the existing Heritage Elementary.

"We, in effect, will have two schools running at the Heritage site," said MaryEllen Elia, chief facilities officer for Hillsborough schools.

Construction was supposed to be completed by July 31, but Alia Qureshi, a district architect who oversees the Turner project, said the work won't be done until late December.

Bids for steel and concrete came in higher than budgeted, forcing the district to rebid. That process, Elia said, delayed construction on the 83,892-acre school, located on nearly 61/2-acres of land off Bruce B. Downs and Imperial Oak boulevards.

It also forced administrators to come up with an alternative. Heritage Elementary, which has room for 961 students, seemed like the logical choice. Only about 550 students are enrolled there.

Elia said the district is not sure how many students will enroll at Turner, though various district officials have said they anticipate 738 students on opening day.

Turner principal Donna Ares is already working from Heritage Elementary.

When Turner does open in January, it will be the first new elementary in New Tampa since Heritage in 2003. In all, there are six elementary schools in the northeast Hillsborough suburb. But almost as soon as they open, the campuses spill over with students.

The district will outline its backup plan to Turner Elementary parents at 6 p.m. April 11 in the Heritage Multipurpose Room, 18201 E Meadows Road.

FIRE DESTROYS EMPTY HOUSE - An early morning fire destroyed a small unoccupied house in the Casa Loma subdivision in north Tampa on Tuesday, but no one was injured.

Tampa Fire Rescue workers arrived at 8905 N Dexter Ave. about 6 a.m. and found the 913-square-foot house engulfed in flames. They had the blaze under control within a half hour.

Neighbors gave a Tampa fire marshal investigator conflicting reports about whether the house was vacant, with some saying an elderly woman resides there. But no one was in the house at the time of the fire, according to Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade.

Investigators have not determined the fire's cause, but it left about $60,000 in damage. Wade said the home is uninhabitable.

[Last modified April 2, 2005, 10:10:05]