By LINDA CHION KENNEY
County officials reviewed again plans to relieve massive traffic delays in the years ahead, with toll roads that afford quicker access to Interstate 75 for south Hillsborough County residents.
At the Sept. 17 meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), Greg Slater, who heads the Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority (THEA), and Jay Collins, representing the Hillsborough County Planning Commission, discussed both the proposed toll road extension along U.S. Highway 301 and the Riverview Community Plan.
The comments were a prelude to another round of related community meetings, scheduled for October 11 (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) at the Riverview Civic Center, and October 14 (6 to 8 p.m.) at the Spurlino Family YMCA off Big Bend Road. Also scheduled, a virtual meeting October 9 (6 to 7 p.m.).
Likened to the 1.9-mile elevated tollway extension connecting the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway to the Gandy Bridge, the proposed U.S. Highway 301 extension is viewed as a crucial piece for addressing massive traffic gridlock as the area’s massive development continues unabated.
Reports claim that express lanes could save up to 81 percent of travel time during peak periods, based on a 2045 travel time projection. Without toll roads, Slater said, “the trip from Big Bend Road to the entrance to the expressway up towards Brandon, would take about 77 minutes, and with the express lanes, it could be a trip that’s 15 minutes or less, because it’s limited access.”
Early traffic analysis shows, Slater added, that express lanes during peak hours could cut 62 minutes off the commute from Big Bend Road to the Selmon Expressway, 36 minutes from Gibsonton Road to the expressway and 12 minutes from Bloomingdale Avenue to the expressway.
“We are working very, very closely, not only with the county planning commission, but with Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) as well,” Slater said. “The system has to work continuously and in conjunction with each together, when you look at U.S. 41, I-75 and U.S. 301.”
Also raised were safety issues involved with saturated commutes, and for that Slater reviewed crash data up and down the corridor, which found more than 2,900 crashes in a five-year period. In that time period there were 25 fatalities, including three pedestrian fatalities and one bicyclist fatality.
Reportedly, the top five intersections by crash severity were at U.S. 301 at Big Bend Road (275), U.S. 301 at Gibsonton Drive (274), U.S. 301 at Bloomingdale Avenue (239), U.S. 301 at Balm Riverview Road (168) and U.S. 301 at Summerfield Crossing Boulevard (126).
Rear-end, sideswipe and left-turn crashes accounted for 48 percent, 17 percent and 13 percent of the crashes, respectively. “I would suggest, based on my experience, that sometimes these issues are related to the congestion that you’re seeing,” Slater added. “People get very frustrated, and they start to drive in ways that create safety challenges; they’re trying to find gaps at the intersections at high speed.”
As for opinions raised in surveys and at previous community meetings, Slater said there is overwhelming support for the tollway in its planning stages. “The opinions may change, the opinions may get a little more detailed, once we start offering what real solutions look like,” Slater said, “but certainly we’re hearing from the community down south that they support some sort of traffic relief.”
In addition to the upcoming meetings and surveys, Slater said officials have met at three public workshops last December and with five homeowners associations (at Village Serena, Panther Trace, Rivercrest, Bloomingdale Ridge and Summerfield). Collaboration continues with Plan Hillsborough, as well, on community meetings in Valrico and Riverview.
“The comments we’ve heard so far are not surprising,” Slater said. “One, ‘Hurry up and build it,’ and others, ‘Can you go faster? Can you go further?’ We need to understand more what the east-west connections might be and how to build a business solution that doesn’t [adversely] affect the business community, that minimizes noise and that has a positive impact on the community.”
Work toward that end includes running through a federal process so that federal funds can be secured. “It will take a year or so to go through that process, but that’s when we’re really going to start to see what the solutions, including the entrance and exit points, might look like.”
Collins, from county planning, said it boils down to a clear understanding of transportation and land use within Riverview communities, which is what the Riverview Community Plan addresses. First adopted in 2005, the plan has 13 goals and strategies. Roughly there are 100,000 people living in the area the plan addresses, Collins said. While the plan does not allocate funds, it does include a review of priorities and some conversation about zoning. The community meetings in October will address those plans, as well as another set of meetings in 2026.
He noted that in a SWAT analysis, looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, most commonly cited were community concerns with transportation and connectivity, with community character and infrastructure, and with public services.
BOCC commissioners voted unanimously to accept the September 17 report. For more, visit www.hcfl.gov/.