[Times photo: Fred Victorin]
A road project at Interstate 275 and Roosevelt Boulevard in St. Petersburg annoys Pinellas County officials because the complex interchange will be missing one piece for years: acess from 118th Avenue to I-275 southbound.

By JEAN HELLER

CORRECTION (8/22/01): When the first phase of construction on the new interchange at Interstate 275 and Roosevelt Boulevard is completed, motorists will have access to I-275 northbound and southbound from the new extension of 118th Avenue and access to westbound 118th from the southbound interstate. Motorists will not have access to 118th from northbound I-275 until that ramp is built several years later.

The mounds of dirt and acres of sand have been there so long that weeds grow tall beside the concrete and steel pilings sprouting from the urban landscape.

Motorists speed past, annoyed at the seemingly endless construction intrusions on their commutes, including reduced speed limits.

The vista at Roosevelt Boulevard and Interstate 275 in St. Petersburg is only one of many ongoing construction projects in the greater Tampa Bay region that have frustrated drivers for several years. Some are close to completion, but others, some even worse than what has been seen so far, are in the region's future.

The new interchange under construction at Roosevelt and I-275 annoys several public officials for reasons other than temporary inconvenience. They know that when the project is completed, this part of Pinellas County will resemble New York City's Triborough Bridge area, with ribbons of concrete stretching up and out in every direction.

And that's fine, because the complex new interchange is part of a much larger set of projects designed to make travel between midcounty and Tampa faster and easier. It also will give residents of western Pinellas easier, hassle-free access to the interstate and give everyone better access to the Pinellas beaches.

But one ribbon of concrete is missing from current construction, and that, says Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel, makes no sense.

When a combination of state and county road projects is done, the midcounty east-west corridor along Bryan Dairy Road will connect to 118th Avenue, and 118th Avenue will extend to the interstate, giving residents of Seminole, Pinellas Park, Largo and other communities a direct route to U.S. 19 and I-275, the county's major north-south routes.

I-275 traffic northbound and southbound will have access to 118th Avenue. And 118th Avenue will have access to I-275 northbound.

But not southbound. Not for now.

"I think that fourth ramp is a critical need," Seel said. "(St. Petersburg Mayor) Rick Baker and I have been working to link north and south county. We've been looking at the bigger picture and trying to fill in the missing links. That access to the southbound interstate from 118th Avenue is one of them."

Not to worry, said Ron Glass, planner for the Florida Department of Transportation. That fourth ramp will be built. Eventually.

"There are six pieces to this puzzle," Glass said. "There are two links between 118th Avenue and the interstate, two links between the interstate and 118th Avenue, and two links between 118th Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.

"The original plans called for building them two at a time, making it a three-phase project. We were able to add a third ramp to the phase one, so we compressed the project into two phases. The ramp they're concerned about will be built in phase two."

So why the angst?

Partly because construction on the current $21-million project will be completed next spring, and the design for phase two doesn't even begin until 2003.

"It would have been nice if they'd done them all at the same time," Seel said. Motorists will still be able to go south from Roosevelt on I-275 as they can now.

There are plenty of other projects getting or about to get on motorists' nerves:

FDOT has just started replacing broken concrete on all I-275 ramps in St. Petersburg from 26th Avenue S to 13th Avenue N. It is a six-month project that will cost $6-million.

Early next year, work will begin on the Big Island Gap project, a $32.2-million undertaking to widen I-275 by a lane in each direction and rebuild ramps between Roosevelt Boulevard and Fourth Street. This project won't be finished until late in 2005.

In Tampa, the addition of traffic lanes and the reconstruction of existing lanes and ramps on I-275 between Busch Boulevard and Fletcher Avenue, a $21.2-million project, won't be finished until late next year.

The $17.3-million job of adding lanes and reconstructing pavement and ramps between Fletcher and U.S. 41 will wrap up next summer.

At that point, everyone will have a treat in store as work begins on improvements to the infamous junction of I-275 and Interstate 4. The job hasn't yet been put out for bids, although the estimated cost is $115-million.

"People dread the junction now, so they might as well dread it more in anticipation of the work," said John McShaffrey, FDOT spokesman for the interstate project.

A year after the junction work begins, a second project to improve I-4 from 14th Street to 50th Street will get under way at an estimated cost of $133-million. The project eventually will widen I-4 from two to four lanes in each direction. The bad news is that this work will overlap the work on the junction.

"It will all look like one big project," McShaffrey said. "You won't know which mess you're in."

In southern Hillsborough County, the $1.1-million reconstruction of the I-75 bridges over the Alafia River will be completed this fall.

The state has plans for nearly two dozen more projects to widen, improve and rebuild parts of I-75 and I-275 in Tampa and Hillsborough County, which will subject drivers to construction hassles for years to come.

Pasco County can boast the one interstate project that is causing minor disruption of traffic: the construction of the new State Road 56 and a new interchange just north of the merger of I-75 and I-275. The $30.4-million project will be done by the end of the year.

And in Hernando County, the $2.9-million job of widening three I-75 bridges, over SR 50, Croom Road and the Withlacoochee River, should be done within a few months.

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