Gateway Bridge Construction Set to Begin

The same lawsuit that delayed construction of the Gateway Bridge, joining the Tampa Palms and West Meadows communities, saved the city millions, said Tampa City Councilwoman Lisa Montelione.

“During that time the economy crashed and construction prices fell,” Montelione said. “So we’re actually saving about $8 million (in contractor costs). It cost us a lot of time but it did save us a lot of money.”

A $12.4 million contract was awarded to Prince Contracting, LLC. in May.  Construction should begin in the final weeks of June, said Tampa Transportation Manager Jean Dorzback.   

The lawsuit filed April 2009 by attorney and Tampa Palms resident Warren Dixon on behalf of his client Evelyn Romano of West Meadows sought to nix the bridge project by challenging a wetlands permit awarded to the city. But in January the county's Environmental Protection Commission voted in favor of the city. Prior to the lawsuit, the bridge had been planned as part of an unrealized $183 million project to complete an east-west collector road joining Tampa Palms to I-275.

In an interview with Patch, Dixon said he said he is unhappy the bridge project will commence, but he is ready to work with it.

“It’s about facing reality; the bridge is going to happen,” he said. “Now it becomes a matter of ensuring the bridge is built in the safest way possible ... (and will bring) the least burden on the community.”

Endpoints for the bridge will be New Tampa Boulevard and Commerce Park Boulevard.  The bridge will extend over I-75.  Dixon said he is worried the bridge will encourage drivers will use the bridge to escape traffic on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, thus increasing traffic in New Tampa.

 The bridge will be stripped as a two-lane highway with the capacity to expand to four lanes.  New Tampa Boulevard could be expanded to accommodate any future widening of the bridge, Dorzback said.

“For the time being (the City Council is) leaving New Tampa Boulevard at two lanes, but they are not legally precluded from expanding it at a later time,” she said.

Dixon said he would like to see any future widening of the New Tampa Boulevard legally tied to the completion of the defunct east-west collector road.  Without that assurance, Dixon said the road may face the same overburdened traffic woes currently experienced by Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

“The traffic projected for (New Tampa Boulevard) by 2025 would have made it an arterial highway,” he said. “The city actually used arterial highway calculations to come up with an acceptable traffic volume. If you go to the connector calculations, which is what the road is, and apply that to the projected traffic on the roadway, that’s where you see that it’s a failed road by 2025. That’s dangerous in a residential neighborhood and violates the guidelines of the planning organization.”

During an April Tampa City Council meeting, Montelione sought to impose such a resolution tying New Tampa Boulevard widening to completion of the east-west collector. However, she said the motion failed for a lack of a second. 

“Part of the problem with passing the resolution and getting my fellow council members to agree to something was that it was so far into the future,” she said. “As of right now there is no funding mechanism in place at all for the east-west connector.  It is a road that may never happen in our lifetime”

While Dixon may not be thrilled by the progression of the bridge project despite the lack of a binding resolution on road widening, he said other residents have softened their stance to the project. 

“The areas of New Tampa are transportationally challenged I like to say: so whenever you can increase traffic flow and spread out the traffic between the different roads and give people options, that is going to alleviate congestion in some areas.”