I-4 Connector Will Get Early Start With Stimulus Funds

After being delayed for three years, a project linking Interstate 4 to the Selmon Crosstown Expressway is poised to break ground this fall thanks to more than $100 million in federal stimulus funds.

"It looks like it will happen, but this is still tentative," Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kris Carson said today after releasing a list of projects throughout the state that will be funded with stimulus money.

The "I-4 Connector," as its been called, has been talked about for 20 years and was expected to break ground next spring until a drop off in gas taxes six months ago shelved the project until 2013. Gas taxes fund most of the state's road projects.

Altogether, $105 million in stimulus funds will go toward the $450 million venture - essentially all of the stimulus funding earmarked for state projects in Hillsborough County.

"This is the district's number one priority," Carson said.

The four-year project is expected to create or support some 12,000 jobs. Tolls will range from 50 cents to $1.

Officials also pushed for it as a way to support Port of Tampa, an economic engine itself, and to steer truck traffic off roads in Ybor City, a historic district.

The road will travel along what is now 31st and 32nd streets and include separate truck lanes going to and from the port. The Port handles about 11,000 trucks per day.

DOT officials say the plan still needs approval from the Legislative Budget Commission and final consent from the Federal Highway Administration - expected this spring - before funds can be allocated.

"It's one of those things, but we're hopeful," Carson said.

The stimulus funding doesn't solve all the project's financing dilemmas but it helps smooth them out.

Because the DOT cannot draw gas tax funds until 2013, at some point when the stimulus funds are exhausted the project's contractors will need to take over financing until the department can reimburse them.

Millions more in stimulus funds are slated elsewhere in the Bay area:

$44 million toward the reconstruction of U.S. 19 from State Road 60 to Whitney Road and from Whitney Road to Seville Boulevard (Pinellas County).

$24.6 million for the widening of U.S. 41 from Tower Road to Ridge Road Extension (Pasco County).

Hillsborough Area Regional Transit will receive $15.1 million in stimulus funds. Most of that money will go toward the purchase of new buses.