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Selmon Span May Get Widened

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By RICH SHOPES

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 6, 2008

TAMPA - With traffic expected to surge during the next decade, the agency that manages the Selmon Crosstown Expressway wants to widen the highway's elevated portion through downtown.

Without the widening to six lanes from 12th Street to Morgan Street, "customers will be getting substandard service," said Joe Waggoner, executive director at the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority. "There will definitely be some slowing."

Most of the 15-mile toll road's users are headed downtown or pass through downtown; the authority reports 92,000 transactions daily. That won't be a problem during the next decade or so, but by 2025 the four-lane, mile-long stretch through downtown is almost certain to become choked with traffic, officials say.

Factor in a Department of Transportation project to connect the Crosstown to Interstate 4, and the timetable to gridlock accelerates by seven or eight years. Construction for the connector road at 31st Street is poised to get under way in 2010 and be open to drivers by 2014.

Based on that prognosis, the authority is asking the state to revise a two-year maintenance plan for the downtown elevated portion and shift much of that funding toward the widening.

The state was planning to replace the Crosstown's concrete surface through downtown starting late next year or in early 2010.

The $83 million, two-year project was budgeted after cracks appeared a few years ago and concrete chunks fell from the bridges. The department says the problem has been stabilized but the surface needs to be replaced.

The authority wants to use the project's funding not only to replace the surface but also pay down some of the widening costs. Waggoner said it makes sense to combine the projects because the widening will be needed in 10 years.

"You don't want to have to go and do that twice if you can avoid it. Everybody understands this and everybody wants to do something about it," he said.

The challenge is in funding the project.

Officials aren't sure yet how much the widening will cost. The project could be divided into two phases and drawn out over five or six years. That would stretch out the $83 million to cover the first phase and give state and expressway authority officials more time to find financing for the second phase.

During construction, cars would still use the Crosstown through the downtown area.

The authority is working with a consultant to figure out how much work is needed and the final cost. Most of the piers supporting the bridges can carry the extra lanes with modifications and help from additional piers, Waggoner said.

He doesn't envision having to widen the highway outside downtown.

"It's apparent what the right thing is," Waggoner said. "It all comes down to the question of, 'Do we have the financial resources to make it happen?'"

Authority officials have been mulling the idea for the past two months. They need to develop a detailed plan by this fall to allow the department time to decide whether to proceed with the resurfacing or work with the authority on the widening. The department had planned to bid out the renovation project by late 2009.

So far, the department backs the widening but hasn't yet signed off on the deal.

"By engineering standards it makes sense," department spokeswoman Marian Scorza said. "The department and the authority would have to work together to look at the financing options."

Mayor Pam Iorio supports the widening, too, but suggested that when the work is done buses get special consideration.

"That's a prime route for transit into Brandon," Iorio said. "If they're thinking about adding a lane, they should designate it for transit."

Reporter Ellen Gedalius contributed to this article. Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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