$500,000 study is stop sign for bypass

Neither Tampa nor the Expressway Authority wants to pay, so it waits.

By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
Published February 9, 2008

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TAMPA - The $155-million east-west expressway, long sought as a cure for traffic congestion in New Tampa, has been stalled since last summer over an unexpected expense of $500,000.

And nobody is working to jump-start it.

The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, which had selected a private consortium to build the road, won't cover the $500,000, needed for a required study. Neither will the city of Tampa, which has managed the road's planning.

"If not," said Martin Stone, planning director for the Expressway Authority, "it means the project is probably going to sit."

"We believe that the city has done more than its fair share," said Steve Daignault, administrator of Tampa's public works and utilities departments.

A Vancouver-based executive with the road-building consortium, Plenary Group, didn't respond to a telephone call and e-mail from the St. Petersburg Times. But Stone said activity with Plenary was suspended last summer.

The standoff raises doubts whether the 3-mile toll road can be built.

Susan Chrzan, spokeswoman for the Expressway Authority, said the next step was Daignault's. "It's really in the city's court," she said.

But Daignault said it's in the hands of the Expressway Authority.

"They are the ones that brought Plenary in," Daignault said. "They need to decide if it's still feasible."

That question has haunted the project over much of the decade in which officials have planned it.

The expressway would function as a bypass around Tampa Palms, providing New Tampa commuters quick access to Interstate 275. Currently, their only option is to travel up to 7 miles on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Bearss Avenue, two roads with an obstacle course of red lights.

But the expressway, which would skirt the environmentally sensitive Cypress Creek Preserve, has proven to be expensive even by modern road-building standards. Plenary proposed last year to collect tolls for 40 years, starting at $1.50 a trip, then rising within five years to $2.75. Those would be some of the highest tolls in Florida.

In response, planners with Plenary and the expressway authority launched a series of brainstorming sessions on how to reduce costs. That was part of a $1.5-million study package aimed making the road financially feasible.

But Stone said the expressway authority halted the program in August when Daignault announced that federal highway officials wanted the city to broaden an impact study. The study, required if the expressway is to receive federal construction money, should examine the project's impact on New Tampa Boulevard, the city was told.

Last fall, consultants estimated for Daignault that the additional study would cost $500,000. That's when the city balked.

"At the last minute, we've got a wrinkle," he said. "But it's a $500,000 wrinkle."

Daignault said the city already has marshaled nearly $20-million in impact fees to build a bridge that would form the expressway's entry point across Interstate 75 for most of New Tampa. Over the years, the city also has assembled the expressway's right of way.

"Anything further, we think, needs to come from somebody else," Daignault said.

Joseph Caetano, the City Council member whose district includes New Tampa, supported Daignault.

"I think the city has done their obligation," Caetano said.

Daignault said the uncertainty over the expressway clouds the bridge too, although a city transportation planner said last year the bridge was justified on its own. Construction permits are ready, Daignault said.

"We want to make sure that something is going to happen with the east-west road before we build a bridge," he said.

Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 9, 2008, 00:05:12]