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FDOT May Change Gall Boulevard Plans

Street Could Remain Two-Way

By LAURA KINSLER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - The Florida Department of Transportation may reverse itself on making Gall Boulevard a one-way road.
"The issue is not dead yet," Mayor Cliff McDuffie said at Monday's city council meeting.
McDuffie and City Manager Steve Spina met with DOT District 7 Secretary Don Skelton and other department officials in what may have felt like a last-ditch effort to convince the state agency that improvements to U.S. 301 should not include making Gall Boulevard a one-way street.
The meeting came about after DOT hosted a workshop in Zephyrhills to discuss the $70 million plan, which would limit traffic on Gall to northbound traffic. All southbound traffic would be diverted to Sixth Street, which already is one-way. Both streets eventually would be widened to three lanes.
Half of the people who filed comments at the workshop said they opposed the DOT design.
The DOT nixed a city plan that would keep two-way traffic on Gall and would transform it into a small-town, main street road with wide brick sidewalks, landscaped medians, decorative streetlights and on-street parking.
But the state agency agreed to study a plan for Gall that would have two northbound lanes and one southbound lane. Sixth Street also could be widened to three lanes.
"It would be a very unusual design," project engineer Margaret Smith said.
The only way the concept could work is if the DOT can make it fit in the same right of way that was proposed for the one-way street. DOT will hire a consultant in January to do a preliminary analysis.
"We agreed to study it," Project Manager Waddah Farah said. "It doesn't mean it will work."
If the city council rejects the DOT design, it risks losing $31 million that is budgeted in 2013 to buy right of way. The funding was authorized for the DOT plan, which was approved by the Federal Highway Administration.
"I'm glad we're still working with DOT," Councilman Clyde Bracknell said. "I was totally against the [DOT] plan. Hopefully we can work something out."
The project is aimed at alleviating congestion between State Road 39 and North Avenue. Construction would cost an estimated $40million and would start in 2015.