TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Construction Replaces Neighbors

Greg Fight/The Tampa Tribune

The view from Kelebie Tiruneh's back yard is changing as I-275 is expanded. Tiruneh says the close proximity of the construction creates a noise problem in her home on West La Salle St.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOSE PATINO GIRONA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 28, 2007

Video: I-275 Expansion
Graphic: How To Build An Interstate

TAMPA - When she bought her home on West LaSalle Street seven years ago, Kelebie Tiruneh had neighbors to the rear and to the west.

Those homes are gone, replaced as far as the eye can see by cranes, concrete beams and construction vehicles that have leveled the dirt and are laying the groundwork for the first phase of Interstate 275 expansion.

During the day in her once-quiet West Tampa neighborhood, Tiruneh said she hears the sounds of work trucks and crews; the beep, beep, beep of a truck reversing. Standing in her backyard, she can see the cars and hear the trucks rumbling north on I-275.

At night, she hears car stereos from the interstate. In the past, she said, houses directly behind her on Laurel Street blocked the sound. But Laurel Street is gone along with the homes.

'I don't know what I am going to do,' said the soft-spoken Tiruneh, 35.

The Florida Department of Transportation is replacing the three-lane stretch of northbound I-275 from Himes Avenue to the Hillsborough River, about two miles, with a four-lane highway. It bought property along Laurel from Himes to the river and on LaSalle from Himes to Matanzas Avenue.

The work will cost $107 million and be completed in spring 2010.

'It is a matter of traffic volume,' FDOT spokesman John McShaffrey said. 'Without any of this, I-275 would not be a functional interstate.'

Last year, there were 190,000 daily trips on northbound and southbound I-275 between Himes and the river, he said. By 2012, that number is estimated to rise to 215,000.

'If we don't address these needs, it is only going to get worse,' McShaffrey said.

Tiruneh said she understands the need for the project but underestimated its magnitude.

She has trouble sleeping at night and her roommate, Mike Aneke, 27, who works the nightshift at a Tampa convenience store, loses sleep during the day.

She said she plans to sell the home when the project is completed and find something more tranquil but wonders who would want to buy.

'Nobody wants to buy close to the highway,' said Tiruneh, a native of Ethiopia who is a nursing aide at a local nursing home and studying to be a nurse.

Milagros Rodriguez sees the work from the front door of her LaSalle Street home. The houses across the street have been removed.

She used to wave, say hello and chat with neighbors. Now they are gone, leaving her with a feeling of melancholy, she said.

'Now you just see cars,' said the Cuban-born Rodriguez, who has lived on LaSalle since 1998. 'This was a neighborhood. Now you don't know what it is going to become.'

'Be Patient With Us'

FDOT officials held two neighborhood meetings last month to talk with residents about the project and also spoke at a neighborhood association meeting. McShaffrey said the meetings were well attended.

Along with expanding the interstate, the agency will install 8-foot walls along most of the two-mile stretch to buffer noise. It also will add drainage ponds, landscaping and decorative walls noting West Tampa's history at the interchanges at Howard and Armenia avenues.

Starting in 2011, FDOT will begin expanding northbound I-275 from the Howard Frankland Bridge to Himes and building a new four-lane stretch of southbound I-275 between the Hillsborough River and the Howard Frankland. The work should be completed by 2017.

The interstate will have a large median to allow for expansion, McShaffrey said.

'We are going to just try to be as good as neighbors as we can while we are out there,' he said, adding that the agency will limit night work. 'We ask the people who live in the neighborhood to be patient with us.'

Mario Torres has a strategy to handle the noise: He shuts all the doors in his LaSalle Street home to 'defend' himself.

When construction work begins at night, he will cover his windows with sheets of plywood to block noise and light.

Torres wonders why FDOT didn't buy the nine remaining LaSalle Street homes on the north side of the block from Matanzas to MacDill avenues.

'Why did they leave it like this?' asked Torres, who has lived on LaSalle since 1972. 'What is their objective?'

He said there's a neighborhood rumor that the remaining property on LaSalle between Matanzas and MacDill will be rezoned commercial. He hopes it will happen to increase his property's value.

'Whoever buys a house wants something tranquil where there is no noise,' said Torres, 69.

McShaffrey said FDOT bought the land it needed and the agency isn't aware of any commercial project or rezoning plans for the neighborhood.

'Nothing Remains The Same Forever'

Behind Earl McCullough's home on LaSalle Street, near the river, crews are working the land.

'It is a good thing for the city,' McCullough, 80, said of the expansion. 'It is a necessity to keep up with growth. Nothing remains the same forever.'

In 1963, McCullough faced a similar dilemma. He said he had to sell his Ybor City home because of Interstate 4 construction. He moved to LaSalle.

'It makes a difference how you are situated, what your philosophy is,' McCullough said. 'The more you are affected, the more you will oppose it. I'm affected to a point but not to a point that it is unbearable.'

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 835-2110 or jpatino@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT