Pasco: State, county need to be on same road

A Times Editorial

State, county need to be on same road

The bump in the road connecting the Suncoast Parkway to a planned local route shouldn't be more than a temporary detour to an improved transportation network for Pasco County.

That is if state and county officials do a better job of coordinating than they've done in the past.

Florida Transportation officials notified the county last week that more than $7-million earmarked for the interchange of the Ridge Road Extension and the Suncoast Parkway expired Saturday at the conclusion of the state fiscal year. The letter surprised Pasco County commissioners and administrators and brought a rhetoric-filled follow-up from Rep. Mike Fasano.

Fasano's off-base observations included notations that the "county's unwillingness to complete its end of the project is most disappointing," and "it is my opinion that this is very shortsighted action on behalf of the county to forgo the dollars the state was willing to provide for this interchange."

The county, it should be noted, did not drag its feet purposefully, but has yet to obtain federal construction permits for Ridge Road because of an environmental challenge from the Sierra Club. DOT has not even applied for its construction permits for the interchange, prompting an offer from County Administrator John Gallagher to have the county assume responsibility for permitting and construction if the state meets its financial obligation.

It is hard to criticize the county considering its ongoing and expensive due diligence to answer the environmental objections. (The Sierra Club wants the Ridge Road Extension halted as a way to curb additional development in central Pasco County.)

Unfortunately, the exchange of letters among the state, Fasano and Gallagher isn't the first example of a communications breakdown on the joint project. The on-again, off-again interchange originally wasn't to be built until two years after the parkway opened. That changed in 1997, thanks to a one-page lobbying letter from Fasano, when the Turnpike Authority agreed to build the connection simultaneously with the Ridge Road construction scheduled at the time to be completed in 2000.

County and west Pasco business leaders welcomed the news, but the euphoria was short-lived. In June 1998, the Department of Transportation repeated that the interchange wouldn't be done until 18 months after the parkway opened even though Pasco County had accelerated its own construction schedule. After more intervention from Fasano, the state again reversed course, just a week later.

At this point, the finger-pointing is irrelevant. More important is Fasano's pledge to work to ensure the state money remains earmarked for entrance and exit ramps at the parkway and Ridge Road.

Extending Ridge Road 4.5 miles from Decubellis Road to the parkway and on to U.S. 41 is an essential part of an improved road network in Pasco County, which has no multilaned east-west route beyond Moon Lake to the north and Seven Springs to the south. Connecting Ridge Road to the Suncoast Parkway will allow easier access for north-south motorists to the businesses in the middle of west Pasco, provide an additional hurricane evacuation route and likely spark economic development.

The county can ease concerns about growing urban sprawl by making Ridge Road a limited-access highway instead of just another local route ripe for roadside development.

Fasano acknowledged the end result will be a more expensive road. He's most likely right. It's also the reason he and Pasco's other legislators need to ensure that in the meantime, state transportation planners don't spend the Ridge Road interchange money elsewhere.