New name, signs pondered for Crosstown

The Expressway Authority will explore a new logo and a shorter name for the toll road.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD, Times Staff Writer
Published October 23, 2007

TAMPA - The Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway's name might be shortened as the agency that oversees it plans to replace about 175 signs that direct motorists to the toll road and are posted along its route.

The road's name might end up being simply "Selmon Crosstown Expressway."

The current signs are left over from several different stages of the road's development. At least one shows the road's original name, South Crosstown Expressway. Others say Tampa Crosstown Expressway. And many are small blue signs with the Expressway's old mascot, a pirate.

Board members of the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority voted Monday to have staffers come up with a new logo - which might include the shortened name - and to come up with a cost estimate for the project. The board should take up the issue again by December

A 2002 plan estimated it would cost about $240,000 to replace the 175 signs and also post another 70. A proposal by the former owners of Lee Roy Selmon's All-American Grill restaurant chain to pay for replacing the signs has been dropped.

Last January, OSI Restaurant Partners Inc. presented the Expressway Authority with a $250,000 plan to post 240 new signs. But the proposal never went anywhere and OSI was recently bought out by private equity firms.

In other action Monday, the board:

-Voted to hire a part-time lobbyist to represent it during the upcoming legislative session, and then hire a full-time, in-house staffer to do its government relations work in the future.

-Discussed the possibility of not renewing a lease with the city of Tampa that gives the city the use of 12 acres of parking beneath the expressway's viaducts downtown. The city is offering $100,000 a year, but the authority thinks that's not a fair market rate. They'll continue to negotiate.

Mike Brassfield can be reached at brassfield@sptimes.com or 813 226-3435.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 00:11:15]