I-4 Critical But Problematic

TAMPA - Like a main artery into the heart of Tampa, Interstate 4 is vital to the delivery of commuters and goods here and to towns and cities along the way.

When I-4 is closed, as it is this morning near Polk City, the whole region suffers.

Workers are late for work, if they show up at all. Drivers' blood pressure rises. Tens of thousands of cars and trucks are forced to use roads that wind through towns, in turn affecting people who typically use those streets.

Interstate 4 is the only major highway that connects Tampa to points east such as Lakeland and Orlando. State Road 60 is there, too, but it isn't a nonstop route and can't begin to handle the east-west daily traffic that grinds in and out of West Central Florida.

Just how important I-4 is to this region was made clear this morning when a massive pileup east of Lakeland, wrecks that killed at least three people, brought morning traffic in both directions to a standstill.

Authorities said the interstate could be closed for hours and possibly the rest of the day.

A combination of smoke from a brush fire and morning fog reduced visibility to nearly nothing, and motorists began slamming into slowing traffic in front of them. Fifty vehicles maybe more were involved in the wrecks. Twenty of the 50 vehicles were tractor-trailers, including at least one tanker that caught fire, authorities reported.

Officials scrambled to reroute traffic.

"This is obviously the main and most direct route between Tampa and Orlando," said Terry Hensley, a supervisor with the Florida Department of Transportation. "The one other route, which is State Road 60, which is a good road, is just not built to handle nearly the traffic volume. I would say that there has been a several-fold increase [of I-4 traffic] over the past several years."

Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kris Carson said traffic counts along I-4 log a daily increase of about 1,000 vehicles.

The most congested spot is the junction of interstates 4 and 75 east of Tampa, where transportation officials count an average 124,000 vehicles a day on I-4.

The increase in traffic has resulted in stepped-up efforts to widen the highway that connects Orlando and Tampa, Hensley said.

Additionally, there are real-time signs announcing traffic conditions and warning motorists of jams (the signs in the section of Polk County where the pileup happened are under construction and not operational), and crews are dispatched to fetch debris off the road. It's all an attempt to keep traffic impediments to a minimum, he said.

"Every effort to keep traffic moving has been made," Hensley said. The cost of building new roads to handle traffic increases is prohibitive, he said. Other options include light rail and elevated roads.

"If we could wave our magic wand and build roads that would not have a negative impact on environment, sure, it would be nice to have another road," he said. "But that's not going to happen in our lifetime."

Here are average daily traffic counts for locations along Interstate 4 during 2006 (Numbers for 2007 are not available.):

•East of the Polk Parkway, 66,406
•West of U.S. 27, 75,500
•East of the Hillsborough-Polk county line, 112,000
•West of Mango, near the I-75 interchange, 124,000
•East of 40th Street, Tampa, 107,500
•At 22nd Street, Tampa, 113,500