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Median Bad For Businesses

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By RICH SHOPES

rshopes@tampatrib.com

Published: February 15, 2009

TAMPA - Abraham Issa spent $100,000 to improve access to 31st Avenue from U.S. 41, about two blocks south of Causeway Boulevard, so he could get a permit to build a Shell service station.

By January 2007, after Issa opened his station, workers were undoing the work, laying a concrete median to prevent vehicles from making left turns onto 31st from northbound U.S. 41. and prohibiting U-turns to get to his business.

The Department of Transportation says the changes, part of a massive reconstruction of Causeway from U.S. 41 to U.S. 301, improve safety and traffic flow through the Causeway and U.S. 41 intersection.
Issa sees it differently. He says he lost business from most, if not all, northbound U.S. 41 traffic. By his estimate, receipts dropped 40 percent in the past year.

"I don't know why they had me spend that money," he says.

He's not the only area business owner who is unhappy. Some in the compact industrial zone south of Causeway Boulevard and west of U.S. 41 say their customers have complained it's harder to find their businesses.

The state now says it is willing to make some changes, but DOT spokeswoman Marian Scorza says it won't remove the median on U.S. 41 at 31st Avenue, which Issa says hurt his business and caused the access problems in the first place.

"It's caused a lot of aggravation," says Colin Mattson, who runs an aluminum fabricating company. "They get lost. They don't know how to get here."

Jerry Britt, owner of a pavement sealing business, says he worries about customers and employees trying to enter the industrial park from Causeway Boulevard. He's part of a coalition of businesses that approached DOT last year.

"The safety issue is the biggest thing," Britt says. "Most of my customers are coming in pulling a trailer. Most of my deliveries leave here in a semi."

When the state added the median to U.S. 41 in front of 31st Avenue, it forced northbound traffic headed to the industrial park to turn left at Causeway and then left again at Sagasta Street, about a block west.

Because Causeway doesn't have a left-turn lane at Sagasta, trucks stopping to make the turn create backups.

To make matters worse, the narrow, two-lane road is tough to navigate, especially for big rigs. A median on Causeway reduces the trucks' turning radius and forces them to make a hard left with little room for error. A utility pole on the corner has had to be replaced at least once after being knocked down.

DOT might not have had to make changes to its Causeway project had the business owners attended any of the public hearings held before the project started a year ago, said Kris Carson, another DOT spokeswoman.

She said DOT won't add a turn lane onto Causeway Boulevard at Sagasta. But it will make the turn onto Sagasta easier by scaling back the median and by allowing trucks to use the center lane between the eastbound and westbound lanes.

"They won't have to worry about the back end of their truck sticking out into traffic," said Lynda Crescentini, senior project manager.

But the work will not happen until the end of the year, when the widening project wraps up.

As for Issa, DOT says it's willing to talk with him but it will not remove the median because that would disrupt traffic flow and cause a safety hazard. Scorza wasn't familiar with Issa's specific complaint regarding the $100,000 he paid to improve access.

"We're willing to go out there and meet with anybody who has an issue," she said.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633.

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