Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Expressway Authority balks at private toll road proposals
By MIKE BRASSFIELD
Published February 16, 2007
TAMPA - How much are drivers in suburban New Tampa willing to pay to avoid traffic-clogged Bruce B. Downs Boulevard? A dollar? $2.75? Three bucks? That ultimately is the question that the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority was considering Thursday as it interviewed two firms bidding to build the long-awaited East-West Road that would connect New Tampa to Interstate 275. The Expressway Authority is trying to become the first government agency in Florida to hire a private company to build and operate a toll road. The idea is to avoid using public money. But it's unclear whether the authority will be able to make a deal with either company. One firm says it will still need millions in public subsidies every year to break even on the road - a potential deal breaker. The other firm is asking for no public money but would charge higher-than-average tolls. An Expressway Authority review panel expressed concerns about both plans after hearing more about them Thursday. It will recommend one to the agency's board Feb. 26. More negotiations will follow. One company, the Plenary Group, would start rush-hour tolls at a relatively low $1.50 to get drivers accustomed to using the road, which would only accept SunPass. It would raise that by a quarter a year for the first five years, to $2.75. "Quite frankly, if we had the political will to charge $2.75 per car, this is a project we'd be willing to do ourselves," said Marty Stone, the agency's planning director. The other company, Spanish firm OHL, would charge tolls of only 75 cents or $1, but it is asking for $24-million a year in public subsidies over 40 years. OHL says without a subsidy, it would have to charge a $3 toll on the 3-mile road. Mike Brassfield can be reached at 813 226-3435 or brassfield@sptimes.com.
[Last modified February 16, 2007, 01:54:44]
Share your thoughts on this story
Comments on this article
|
by Tony
|
04/16/07 08:38 AM
|
|
This is another attempt to let the private sector have another go at us.
after spending public funds to
again price us out of existence. where is the competition. we are going
to go under with the constant increase
of tolls and taxes
|
|
by Ed - Commuter
|
02/16/07 12:56 PM
|
|
What has been done with ALL of the taxes earmarked for roads? Another TOLL Road??? Just we what need.... Just think, a dollar a mile, what a deal....
|
|
by Troy
|
02/16/07 11:47 AM
|
|
We pay enought taxes for this needed road. It should be built by the city of Tampa.
|
|
by Ken
|
02/16/07 07:14 AM
|
|
Well, at least Plenary is being somewhat "honest" and telling us up front it's a "bait and switch" on the tolls.
|
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
