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DOT Rejects Two-Way Traffic On Gall

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: March 4, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - The city appears to have lost its battle to keep two-way traffic on the Gall Boulevard section of U.S. 301.

The Florida Department of Transportation is planning a $70 million widening project, starting in 2015, but the design would convert Gall into a one-way street for 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.

The state agency has rebuffed various proposals from the city to maintain two-way traffic on the city's busiest boulevard, but engineers agreed to study a proposal to keep one lane of southbound traffic and two lanes of northbound traffic on Gall.

"We looked at the different alternative and found that it won't work," spokeswoman Kristen Carson said.

The only way the concept would have worked is if DOT had been able to make the two-way road fit in the same right of way proposed for the one-way street. Carson said there simply wasn't enough space to maintain three traffic lanes and turn lanes at the major intersections.

Even if the road were built to the city's specifications, it would have failed within a decade, according to the DOT traffic analysis.
City Council President Luis Lopez said he wasn't surprised by the outcome.

"We're a small city, and they're the state," Lopez said. "I kind of figured we can try all day long, and they're going to do what they wanted to do all along. I'm kind of disgusted with DOT right now."
City leaders have opposed the DOT-preferred plan, saying it would devastate businesses on Gall. Since the plan maintains Seventh Street as a one-way street for northbound traffic, southbound drivers would have no access to businesses on the east side of Gall.

"I know the majority of directors for the Chamber of Commerce are not in favor of U.S. 301 being one-way," said Manny Funes, the council's liaison to the chamber.

City Manager Steve Spina said if city council agrees to the DOT plan, the city would likely convert Seventh Street back to a two-way street. The issue will be on the agenda for the March 9 council meeting.

City council members have the final say. If they reject the DOT design, they would lose $31 million budgeted to buy right of way. The funding was authorized for the DOT plan, which was approved by the Federal Highway Administration. The proposed right of way acquisition, initially scheduled for 2013, has been pushed back a year.

"The only good news is they're not going to do it tomorrow. It's going to be a number of years before it gets built," Lopez said.

If it rejects the DOT plan, the city would have to pay for its own transportation improvements. It could be decades before the state comes up with another plan.

The project is aimed at alleviating congestion between State Road 39 and North Avenue. Construction would cost an estimated $40 million. DOT has offered to build the project in two phases, doing the one-way conversion first and the widening later.

"I'd rather phase it in," Spina said. "That's a halfway decent alternative."

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 779-4617.

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