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Letter to the editor

Not so welcome neighbor

A project to widen I-275 brings tears to a longtime resident, one of many seeing their neighborhood changed.

By EMILY NIPPS Times Staff Writer
Published October 12, 2007

Standing in Ryals' back yard on La Salle Street today, those memories are hard to imagine.

Her quaint property now overlooks a massive construction site, a sea of dirt and rubble, with the traffic-congested Interstate 275 on the horizon.

She wakes to the sound of clanging and whirring and beeping. And it may get worse in a few years, when the I-275 road widening project is expected to finish and more traffic brings even more noise closer to home.

"This is a historical place," said Ryals, 74. "They messed everything up. I've cried about it."

Ryals is among a long string of neighbors south of the interstate, from Himes Avenue to downtown, who have suddenly found themselves staring at a landscape of ugly machinery and dust clouds every day.

They should have known it was coming; the widening has been in city plans for more than a decade.

Tampa is growing, they all know this.

But it still stinks - even the road officials know this.

"It's always tough when you're going through neighborhoods like that," said John McShaffrey, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. "We're kind of the new neighbors in town. We want to be good neighbors, but people have to be patient with us."

The widening project's first phase, which will add a lane to I-275 from Himes to Ashley Street, began in mid August and is expected to be completed in spring 2010.

The DOT did its best to spread the word in the eclectic neighborhoods nearby so the residents would at least be aware of the plans, McShaffrey said. Still, road officials have fielded some complaints from homeowners who weren't expecting such a mess or renters who had no clue.

Ryals, for one, knew of the impending construction beforehand, but she still was shocked by what she saw outside one day. A huge oak tree that branched into the DOT's property had been sliced in half, leaving the looming, lopsided leftovers ready to topple on her roof in a windstorm. The DOT has since promised to remove or trim the tree for her safety. Part of her backyard fence also was destroyed. (The DOT has promised to fix that, too.)

A couple of houses away, a man who bought his home in 1955 suffers from emphysema and can't go outside because of the dust, dirt and pollen from the pulverizing machines.

Another La Salle Street resident complained that he no longer needed an alarm clock since the construction noise wakes him hours before his usual time.

The situations are unfortunate, McShaffrey said, but unavoidable. Representatives from the DOT held a meeting at a neighborhood church before construction started, hoping to prepare residents, but they still expected complaints. They intend to hold a "design open house" in January or February, when they'll reveal more details on the aesthetics of an 8-foot noise wall intended to shield neighbors from the drone of traffic.

Someone has to sacrifice for the community good. And quite frankly, McShaffrey said, if you live next to a major roadway, you shouldn't be too surprised if construction crews come knocking.

"You might want to do your homework," he said. "Florida has grown so fast, it's a good chance the roads are going to be improved. That's got to be a concern for anyone who lives near an interstate. It's a buyer beware situation for sure."

That advice does little to comfort Ryals, whose roots were planted in the neighborhood so long ago, she never had a choice but to adjust her quality of life for urban growth.

"I was wedged here by accident," she said of her humble La Salle home.

"Imminent domain has pity on no one. It's go or die."

Emily Nipps can be reached at (813) 226-3431 or nipps@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 07:15:15]