East-west road would lose money, study shows

Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 27, 2000

A proposed east-west toll road linking New Tampa to Interstate 275 would not generate enough traffic to support itself, according to a consultant. A report by URS Greiner Consultants casts serious doubts on the future of the controversial project, which would link New Tampa Boulevard to the interstate with a four-lane strip costing as much as $30-million to build.

Mayor Dick Greco, who has put his Tampa Palms home up for sale in part because of his long commute downtown, said Wednesday it would be nearly impossible to get financial backing for the road if it can't be proven the road will pay for itself. Greco said the city will focus for now on other key transportation projects for New Tampa, including a flyover of Interstate 75 at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and the widening of Bruce B. Downs.

After using two forecasting techniques, consultants with URS Greiner came to the same conclusion: If the east-west connector is built as a toll road with a charge of 50 cents a car, it wouldn't be able to pay operating and maintenance costs in its first 10 years or cover the debt payments on a bond issue.

In its first year of operation, 5,600 to 5,900 vehicles would use the toll road every day, the study predicted. If the highway didn't charge a toll, the number of vehicles using it on a daily basis would double, according to the study.

Setting the tolls at 75 cents or $1 would generate more cash, but not nearly enough to build even the most modest connector road, the consultants said.

"The demand forecasting results for this roadway under the non-tolled scenario indicate that it is clearly justified," the report says. "Under the tolled scenario, however, the New Tampa Connector loses around half of its traffic."

The study was hailed by people living in West Meadows, who formed a coalition to fight a highway that would have cut through their neighborhood. Environmentalists also claimed victory. They say the east-west project would destroy some of the only wetlands left in New Tampa and choke off wildlife corridors.

But others in New Tampa think an east-west connector is crucial to the area's future, including City Council member Shawn Harrison. Although the construction of State Road 56 in Pasco County should trim thousands of cars from New Tampa's traffic jams when the road opens in 2002, City Council member Bob Buckhorn said the east-west road's seeming demise will force new alternatives to be considered.

VALESSA TRIAL DELAYED -- The first-degree murder trial of Valessa Robinson, a Carrollwood Village teen accused of helping kill her mother in June 1998, has again been delayed.

Valessa, who was 15 when prosecutors say she helped her boyfriend murder real estate agent Vicki Robinson in their suburban kitchen, was scheduled for trial March 6. But at a hearing Friday, Valessa's lawyer said she needs more time to interview state witnesses and also to attack the testimony of prosecution witness Jon Whispel.

Whispel, 20, pleaded guilty to a reduced murder charge in exchange for his testimony against Valessa and her boyfriend, Adam Davis. Davis was tried last year and sentenced to death. Friday, Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett agreed to continue the trial, though no firm date has been set.

If Valessa is convicted as charged, she must by law be sentenced to life in prison. Because of her age, she cannot face the death penalty. The state is seeking to prove that she helped murder her mother to try to keep Mrs. Robinson from separating her from Davis.

BABY ABANDONED AT EGYPT LAKE -- An infant boy weighing 6 pounds, 7 ounces was discovered Thursday wrapped in a bloody sheet and a garbage bag at the Carlton Arms apartment complex in North Tampa's Egypt Lake section.

The infant was in good condition at Tampa Children's Hospital at St. Joseph's, doctors said as Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies searched for the mother. It was the fourth time this month that a mother has abandoned a newborn in Florida, and the phenomenon has been repeated across the country.

"Baby Benjamin," as nurses dubbed him, had entered the world about two hours before he was found, doctors said. His temperature was 89 degrees, nearly 10 degrees lower than normal. Another half-hour outside and the morning chill would likely have caused the baby's heart to stop, said Dr. Richard Sheridan, who examined the infant and prescribed antibiotics.

Baby Benjamin was one of 31 infants abandoned since 1987 in a nine-county area of Central Florida, according to Tom Jones, spokesman for the state Department of Children and Families. Ten of those 31 babies were found dead. Eight mothers were identified and charged.

Officials at St. Joseph's Hospital said Thursday they are considering a partnership with local agencies that would allow for a "Safe Place" program where mothers can leave newborns legally. In Florida, a mother who abandons her newborn can face criminal charges ranging from negligence to attempted murder.

OFFICIALS INVESTIGATE GAITHER BLAZE -- Fire destroyed two portable classrooms at Gaither High School early Thursday, and school officials and fire investigators aren't sure how it started.

Firefighters responded at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, but fire consumed one of the wooden classrooms and spread to a second before it was put out.

"One of them burned down. That's about all we know," said Gaither assistant principal Jim Pullin. "So we have two portables that are essentially lost."

The cause of the fire is under investigation, said Donald Campbell, a fire investigator with the county Fire Marshal's Office.

The two portable classrooms were used to house students punished in the In School Suspension program, or ISS. Pullin estimated the financial loss of the two portables at $65,000. There are no plans to replace them.

"There are none to bring in, so we'll make do," Pullin said. "It's going to require a little movement, that's all. But we'll work it out."

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