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International Infrastructure Partners

MPO keeps elevated road on county transportation plan

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A group that spent months successfully fighting a privately built elevated toll road through the heart of Pasco County got a bit of a setback last week. But its members seem to be OK with it … for now.

Jason Amerson, second from left, will fight any elevated road planned to run near his home off State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes, but won’t challenge the county’s current long-range transportation plan as long as elevated roads don’t come up as a viable option. He was one of the leaders of a local protest group, Pasco Fiasco, that included, from left, Patrick Knight, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum. (File Photo)
Jason Amerson, second from left, will fight any elevated road planned to run near his home off State Road 54 in Land O’ Lakes, but won’t challenge the county’s current long-range transportation plan as long as elevated roads don’t come up as a viable option. He was one of the leaders of a local protest group, Pasco Fiasco, that included, from left, Patrick Knight, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum. (File Photo)

Pasco County’s 2040 Long-Range Transportation Plan is on its way to both federal and state authorities, highlighting the county’s plan for roads, transit and sidewalks over the next 25 years. And among the various needs the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization included in that transportation plan are elevated roads along the State Road 54/56 corridor.

“We knew the (transportation plan) would still contain the elevated toll road,” said Jason Amerson, a Land O’ Lakes resident who was one of the key players in the elevated toll road protest group, Pasco Fiasco. “It’s not something we are worried about unless they start actively discussing it again at MPO meetings.”

Pasco Fiasco came together last year after some homeowners who live just off State Road 54 learned about a proposal by a private company, International Infrastructure Partners LLC, to build a 33-mile elevated toll road, stretching from U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills to U.S. 19 in New Port Richey. The company had said initially it would fund the estimated $2.2 billion project on its own, but then lost its negotiating power with the Florida Department of Transportation after it requested the state help finance it.

That killed the private project, but an elevated road option remained in the county’s transportation plan. While then Pasco County commissioner Henry Wilson Jr., vowed to help Pasco Fiasco and others against an elevated road down State Road 54 remove such projects from the plan, Wilson was defeated in an open primary election last October by Mike Wells Jr.

“It’s not a simple task getting it removed,” Amerson said. “Probably even a harder task now that Wilson is gone.”

The elevated road remains an option for the county between 2020 and 2040 along the State Road 54/56 corridor as an “alternative improvement.” That could include “premium transit improvements” like toll lanes, overpasses like those used on U.S. 19 in Pinellas County, and elevated lanes.

The elevated road stayed in the plan, but the MPO did make more than 30 other changes to the documents after two months of public hearings. The MPO conducted a 30-day comment period through Nov. 23, as well as public workshops throughout November. It concluded with a public hearing on Dec. 11 where the new transportation plan was adopted unanimously.

Many adjustments to the plan were minor, like name changes of some roads at Bexley Ranch near the Suncoast Parkway, and Mitchell Boulevard near the Little Road area.

But there also were some larger changes as well. They included:

  • Moving up the six-lane expansion of State Road 52 from Interstate 75 to Pasco Road from 2040 to 2019.
  • Delaying another 10 years to 2040 projects like Livingston Avenue from State Road 54 to Collier Parkway, Eiland Boulevard from Handcart to Dean Dairy roads, Curley Road from Wells Road to Clinton Avenue, and Lake Patience Road from Sunlake Boulevard to U.S. 41.
  • Keeping the State Road 56 expansion from Meadow Pointe to U.S. 301 two lanes instead of four by 2019, but possibly expanding it to four lanes by 2030.

That last proposal angered city leaders in Zephyrhills, who wanted four lanes leading into one of its key commercial areas, the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. Lawmakers like new state representative and former Zephyrhills mayor Danny Burgess said they would work with the city to try and restore funding for a four-lane segment.

The MPO also made a number of changes to Tower Road, which runs primarily east to west in Pasco, just north of State Road 54. They include developer-funded improvements like a two-lane stretch from Bexley Ranch to Ballantrae Boulevard, and an expansion to a two-lane road from U.S. 41 to Ehren Cutoff by 2040, paid for by the county.

The Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, and the Florida Department of Transportation will now review the plan, and work with the county to help implement it.

To read the complete plan, visit Mobility2040Pasco.com.

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Elevated toll road down, almost out

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The private elevated toll road proposed for the State Road 54/56 corridor isn’t so private anymore. And that might be enough to cancel the project altogether.

Florida Department of Transportation secretary Ananth Prasad said he has some serious concerns about the controversial 33-mile project, especially after the developers behind the project — International Infrastructure Partners — signaled they would need some taxpayer investment in the project.

“He came to the conclusion that the project does not look very promising,” FDOT spokesman Dick Kane told The Laker/Lutz News. “The reason, he said, was that when they looked into the financials of the unsolicited proposal, it was not what we were initially led to believe.”

Prasad, who was traveling Wednesday, did not have the exact amount IIP expected the state to contribute. However, even a single dollar would be more than what officials were told would be required, as the estimated $2.2 billion project was going to be funded completely by private equity.

Prasad, hearing that there would have to be some public dollars, then suggested in a meeting with the developer last week that it might be time to “hit the reset button,” Kane said.

That does not mean the project is dead, but it certainly is on life support. Prasad plans to meet with the developers again in the next couple of weeks to see if they can hammer out some of the questions that have been raised around the project.

A request for comment from the developers of the proposed project is pending return.

Pasco County administrator Michele Baker, however, said it’s not completely over.

“Pasco County will continue to engage the public and move forward with its analyses and studies in order to determine how to manage future congestion on the State Road 54/56 corridor,” Baker said, in a statement.

The county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization will continue to consider options as it gets ready to adopt its long-range transportation plan in December, Baker said.

Members of a local opposition group Pasco Fiasco say they believe the project has been scrapped, based on what they’ve been told by Pasco County commissioner Jack Mariano, who also opposes the project. However, the group is still planning a rally May 19 at 7 p.m. at Sunlake High School promoting their position.

FDOT leader goes point-by-point on elevated toll road

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Patrick Knight has been an active voice against the proposed elevated toll road in the State Road 54/56 corridor, and tried to pull the big guns into his fight by writing Gov. Rick Scott.

Instead, Knight’s letter was answered by Florida Department of Transportation District Seven secretary Paul Steinman, who responded to Knight point-by-point on the potential 33-mile project that would stretch from Zephyrhills to New Port Richey.

“This type of project has already been built, and is operating successfully around the country, so we are getting a good idea of what people are able or willing to pay to use them,” Steinman wrote in a letter to Knight, which was shared with members of elevated road opposition group Pasco Fiasco. “Like any good business, the company that runs this venture will study its potential customers and set reasonable prices. If they were to charge too much, they would lose money in the end.”

In his letter to Scott, Knight touched on not only the potential high cost of tolls, but other factors he and members of his opposition group fear, like sinkholes, traffic congestion, extra noise from the road, and even allowing a foreign company to participate in a road project. One of the key partners working with developer International Infrastructure Partners LLP is OHL Group of Spain.

“There will never be public support for this project,” Knight wrote. “An elevated toll road owned and operated by a foreign corporation and used only by those who can afford a very high toll is not needed.”

However, where a proposing road construction company is based is not necessarily something the FDOT considers when partnering with projects, Steinman said.

“Nothing prohibits foreign companies form competing for this type of project,” Steinman said. “Allowing more companies to compete benefits Florida by increasing competition and lowering costs for the taxpayer.”

Also, any company, foreign or domestic, would have to hire local subcontractors and engineers to build, Steinman added. And both that work and the attraction to develop in the area because of the “presence of the roadway” would create more jobs in the state.

Steinman also downplayed any potential problems with sinkholes in the county, citing recent work on Interstate 75, which he said created no sinkhole problems either on the project site, or in surrounding private property.

There was a little bit of hope for opponents of the road, however.

“We have received many similar comments from other citizens, and have asked the company proposing the project to provide other options to the original elevated concept,” Steinman said.

International Infrastructure Partners submitted its unsolicited proposal to FDOT last summer, and the decision to give the company the necessary right-of-way along the State Road 54/56 corridor to build the potential $2.2 billion project lies with the state agency.

However, FDOT officials have said in the past they would not move forward without the blessing of the Pasco County government. Two members of the commission, Henry Wilson and commission chair Jack Mariano, have publicly come out against the project.

Public meetings about the proposed project are set to begin in June and July.

Another civic group rejects elevated toll road concept

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Just a day after Pasco County’s organization of homeowners associations rejected plans for an elevated toll road along the State Road 54/56 corridor, another group has come out against it.

The Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, whose office is just blocks from where such a road project would go through in Land O’ Lakes, has given a thumbs down to the potential $2.2 billion private proposal from International Infrastructure Partners.

“While the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce supports planned growth and economic development, we are opposed to the (State Road) 54/56 managed lanes initiative (elevated toll road) as it will have a severe negative impact on all area businesses and our community,” the board of directors stated in a release.

The chamber said it formed a study committee after it was approached by some 400 of its members to look into the 33-mile project that would extend from U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills to U.S. 19 in New Port Richey. The committee concluded it was against the project, and requested Pasco County, the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Florida Department of Transportation, and the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority provide information so that residents can make more informed decisions.

Part of what they asked for included all the studies relating to the corridor, and supporting documents that “justify why and how the managed lanes concept is the ‘only viable option,’ according to county officials. The group also wants all transportation and traffic studies for the region for the past 10 years, including studies on State Road 54, State Road 52 and Ridge Road, as well as the continuation of the Veterans Expressway east of Dale Mabry Highway in Hillsborough County.

The Pasco Alliance of Community Associations earlier this week also rejected the elevated road concept, saying it would negatively effect many of its 60,000 residents who live along the corridor.

PACA gives a big no to elevated toll road

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In a move that is not necessarily surprising, the Pasco Alliance of Community Associations has come out against a proposed elevated toll road in the State Road 54/56 corridor.

John Copeland, PACA’s president, presented the group’s decision to Pasco County Commissioner chair Jack Mariano in a letter Wednesday, saying they are “opposed to this solution.”

PACA represents 60,000 residents living in homeowners associations, condominium associations and community development district-managed communities.

“Most of these residents reside along the 54/56 corridor and feel they will be adversely affected by an elevated toll road on 54/56,” Copeland said in his letter. “Our membership believes that more suitable solutions can be found and that not enough consideration has been given to possible alternatives.”

International Infrastructure Partners has proposed a private venture estimated by some to cost $2.2 billion that would build a 33-mile elevated toll road from U.S. 301 in Zephyrhills to U.S. 19 in New Port Richey.

A group of residents living along the State Road 54/56 corridor have organized against the project, speaking out at recent meetings hosted by the county. However, it is ultimately up to the Florida Department of Transportation to make a final decision, although officials there say they won’t proceed without the blessing of the county.

PACA was created in 2007 as a way to bring together a number of civic associations in Pasco County. Its next meeting April 10 will welcome Richard Gehring from the county government, who will present details about the proposed elevated toll road. That meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center, 5401 Land O’ Lakes Blvd.

Town hall over elevated toll road descends into chaos

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The crowd was there to speak, not to listen.

After spending nearly an hour hearing why some Pasco County leaders like planning and development administrator Richard Gehring were still open to exploring the possibility of an elevated toll road along the State Road 54/56 corridor, hundreds of people gathered at a town hall meeting at Sunlake High School Monday night interrupted, shouted and booed over scheduled speakers.

Residents crowded into Sunlake High School's gymnasium March 10 to talk about the proposed elevated toll road for the State Road 54/56 corridor. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Residents crowded into Sunlake High School’s gymnasium March 10 to talk about the proposed elevated toll road for the State Road 54/56 corridor. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

And their goal was clear: No elevated toll road.

“This needs to have community support, and the presentation (from county officials) was very demeaning,” one resident said. “Everything has already been decided.”

It was supposed to be just another one of several town hall meetings Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey had organized for constituents: She would bring members of the county staff with her to discuss various issues, and then listen to the attendees and get their feedback.

This meeting, however, served as a prelude to official public interaction over the elevated toll road and overall county transportation plan that’s set to kick off Saturday at The Shops at Wiregrass.

Even with a microphone, speakers like Gehring struggled to talk over the unruly crowd. When one man interrupted him after shouting from the audience, Gehring tried to keep some sort of order.

“Sir … could we have …” Gehring said before getting interrupted again. “Public dialogue requires civility. Let me try and ask you for it.”

International Infrastructure Partners, which submitted an unsolicited proposal last year to privately build the elevated toll road in Pasco County, has not even actually bid on such a project yet, and is still early in negotiations with the Florida Department of Transportation, Starkey said.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “But we all need to know, at least in my mind, what our alternatives are” to the road if it’s not built.

Some of the talk from the crowd is to keep moving such an east-west connector north, just like residents in Hillsborough County have successfully done over the years. One idea would be to build a higher-capacity road along State Road 52, which virtually runs parallel to State Road 54 in the northern part of the county.

“We do have a problem: We have to have an east-west road,” said Christie Zimmer, a member of the Pasco County Citizens’ Advisory Committee. “I’m absolutely 100 percent opposed for that to happen in the State Road 54/56 corridor, but if we look at the 52 corridor, the cost is substantially less.”

Such a road, she said, would not just serve the travelers from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, but it would help bring Hernando County into the fold on a road where not so much development has happened.

At one point, Gehring rebutted a comment that an elevated road would depress property values along the corridor, using the Selmon Expressway as an example in Hillsborough County. There, he said, property values are actually on the rise — a statement that was met with jeers from the audience.

While there was a lot of interruptions from the audience, it did seem at least one person was listening. Ken Littlefield, a Republican candidate for Pasco County Commission seeking to replace Pat Mulieri, failed to take a position on the elevated road during a Republican debate last week. But now, the former state legislator says he has all the information he needs.

“If there is one thing that I detest, it’s an unsolicited call,” Littlefield said. “Every evening, between 5 and 7 p.m., our telephone rings, and every now and then, I will not recognize the number and I’ll pick it up. They’ll start an unsolicited call, and I will hang it up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what I think we need to do on this unsolicited bid is hang up.”

Read more about this meeting and this weekend’s transportation presentation at The Shops at Wiregrass in the March 19 print edition of The Laker/Lutz News.

Elevated road proposal moving forward quickly

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All the talk about a proposed elevated toll road along the State Road 54/56 corridor has put it years and years in the future.

But if the Florida Department of Transportation finalizes an agreement with International Infrastructure Partners LLC, such a project connecting Zephyrhills and New Port Richey may come much faster, with the first public presentation of the road’s conceptual plan scheduled for next month.

Public meetings will be in three locations across the county beginning in late spring, the same time IIP begins its negotiations to lease the right of way along the corridor needed to build the elevated road. They would take place on the east and west sides of the county, as well as in between.

“We’re having further discussions about what is going to be happening after those public hearings, but it’s all kind of a simultaneous thing over the next several months,” said Lee Royal, a public involvement director with the FDOT, during last week’s Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting.  “There will be possible lease negotiations depending on the outcome of those public hearings.”

Which way the pendulum swings will depend on who shows up for those meetings. Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano says he’s received nothing but negative emails about the project in recent weeks, while county planning and development administrator Richard Gehring said a good number of people from a meeting he had in Wesley Chapel chose the elevated road as the best solution for long-term traffic woes in the county.

Negative public sentiment might kill the project before it even gets going, Mariano said, based on how IIP has reacted to bad news in the past. When a member from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute recommended against an elevated road, IIP took a step back from its request, and asked for more time to think through its proposal.

“I have not heard anything back positive from the public,” Mariano said. “I think it’s disingenuous to keep those things rolling down the road when all they are going to do is step back again.”

Yet if the elevated road isn’t built, the county and the state will still have tough decisions to make when it comes to fixing pending traffic congestion issues along the corridor while Pasco County continues to grow.

“I am not 100 percent in favor of this managed toll lane … but we have to evaluate everything,” Commissioner Ted Schrader, another MPO member, said. “If (IIP) withdraws their proposal, we still have an issue to deal with because people will be stuck in traffic.”

Another possibility facing the county is that IIP might not build all 33 miles of the road as initially proposed, Gehring said. The prospective traffic problems in the near future will focus on the 10-mile stretch of State Road 54/56 between the Suncoast Parkway and Interstate 75.

Connecting those two major north-south roads might be the best option for everyone in the long run, he said. And while there are some eyeballs on State Road 52 to the north as an east-west connector, the county still has limited options to build since much of the central part of Pasco is protected conservation land.

“There are a lot of natural constraints in this system that we are trying to deal with,” Gehring said.

Published Feb. 19, 2014

Elevated road brings community together … to protest

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Author Margaret Mead once cautioned to “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world” because “indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

If a private company wants to build an elevated toll road above State Road 54, it will have to convince homeowners like Patrick Knight, Jason Amerson, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum, to do it. The four say communities like Stonegate, where they live, will be subject to noise and heavy traffic outside their quiet community. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
If a private company wants to build an elevated toll road above State Road 54, it will have to convince homeowners like Patrick Knight, Jason Amerson, Brian Narcum and Kristine Narcum, to do it. The four say communities like Stonegate, where they live, will be subject to noise and heavy traffic outside their quiet community. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Jason Amerson isn’t exactly looking to change the world. But he is building support to stop change along State Road 54 that could bring an elevated toll road in the future.

“I never imagined something like this was going to land right on my doorstep,” said Amerson, who moved into the Stonegate community west of Land O’ Lakes Boulevard five years ago. “That is why I am taking this so seriously.”

Amerson is one of a growing group of residents living just off State Road 54 opposed to International Infrastructure Partners’ plan to build a 33-mile elevated road between Zephyrhills and New Port Richey. Such a project could be visible from his neighborhood, currently shielded by trees and other homes, Amerson said, and the highway noise could destroy his property value.

So Amerson has joined a new community activist group known as Pasco Fiasco that has just one goal: Stop the elevated road.

“I am tired of seeing businesses go out of business around here,” Amerson said. “A road like this would force businesses and families to move, and it would be impossible for any of us to ever sell our homes here. We’re going to be kind of locked in here.”

Pasco County officials, however, disagree on that kind of impact. County planning and development administrator Richard Gehring insists the expressway portion of the road would be used by travelers who likely wouldn’t have stopped at businesses along the State Road 54/56 corridor anyway. By moving them up, local traffic will move easier on the lower roads, and actually help businesses rather than hurt them.

Some members of the newly formed Pasco Fiasco group made their first public appearance during a Pasco Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting last week in New Port Richey. They included Land O’ Lakes native Sharon Ogborn, who feels the elevated road is more about accommodating commuters from other areas than it is her Odessa community.

“We moved to our present home in Odessa for the country feeling and the rural setting,” Ogborn said. “It’s going to help Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.”

Pasco Fiasco has already received some support from the Pasco County Commission. Henry Wilson has already made his opposition to the project clear, and at last week’s MPO meeting, fellow commissioner Jack Mariano started to question the project as well.

Yet, the final decision lies not with county officials, but with the Florida Department of Transportation. And while officials there have said they’d want county support before moving forward with the elevated road project, they don’t require it since State Road 54 is just that, a state road.

“Ultimately, the FDOT probably does have the final say, but I think they are going to basically honor what the county commission wants,” Amerson said. “But if Tallahassee thinks it’s a great idea, and the FDOT thinks it’s a great idea, I’m not sure if they’ll listen to the county commissioners in the end.”

Amerson admits that growth in Pasco County is going to eventually require something be done with State Road 54. But he feels county officials have not exhausted all other options quite yet.

Gehring, however, said the county explored 18 alternatives to move traffic east and west in Pasco County. And even if State Road 52 is expanded into multiple lanes, and the expansion of Ridge Road is completed, the best plan to move the large volume of traffic projected along the State Road 54/56 corridor in the next decades is an elevated toll road.

The project most likely wouldn’t have been necessary if homeowners in Hillsborough County didn’t successfully protest road expansions there — like the proposed Lutz Expressway blocked by area residents — that could’ve helped move traffic to the south. And Amerson is interested in taking a little from that playbook.

“Each time they have tried to do this somewhere, it gets beaten back by the people,” he said. “I don’t feel what we have here is any different. I think we really can stop this.”

In the meantime, Amerson has teamed up with Richard Connors, and they are recruiting more people to challenge the elevated road. They are finding people through neighboring communities thanks to a social network site called NextDoor.com that connects people online based on their geographic proximity. Brian Narcum, a Stonegate resident opposed to the road, said it’s helped bring in hundreds of people in just a couple weeks.

And the focus, for now, will remain in lobbying county commissioners against the project, hoping that will be enough to discourage both the FDOT and the private builder IIP from moving forward.

“If you want to bring our area up to the next level, you have to be attractive to businesses and keep that interest in our urban development,” Amerson said. “You can’t put something like this elevated road down the heart of our county that is going to scar the road, and still expect people will want to move here and be next to that.”

To learn more about the local efforts to oppose the road, visit PascoFiasco.com.

Published Feb. 19, 2014

Elevated road could bring 1,000 construction jobs

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If everything goes as planned, a team of international developers could break ground on a 33-mile elevated toll road along the State Road 54/56 corridor by the end of next year. And it could mean a nearly $100 million windfall for the Florida Department of Transportation as well through a “confidential” stipend.

The front page of Florida 54 Express’ 83-page proposal includes the development group’s new logo. Efforts to build an elevated expressway along the State Road 54/56 corridor are a joint effort between International Infrastructure Partners LLC and OHL Infrastructure Inc.
The front page of Florida 54 Express’ 83-page proposal includes the development group’s new logo. Efforts to build an elevated expressway along the State Road 54/56 corridor are a joint effort between International Infrastructure Partners LLC and OHL Infrastructure Inc.

A proposal from a development group that includes Gerald H. Stanley’s International Infrastructure Partners LLC was unsealed by the FDOT last week, asking for control of rights of way between Zephyrhills and New Port Richey to build a privately funded toll road. The FDOT sought out proposals after IIP made an unsolicited proposal last June to build such a road, creating mixed reaction from those who travel the corridor and those owning businesses along it.

The proposal provided no details about how much such a project would cost, although some rough estimates put that figure at more than $2 billion. However, the developers say it will create 1,000 direct jobs for the construction of the road.

On top of that, the partnership — officially known as Florida 54 Express LLC — has offered the FDOT a stipend of slightly more than $1 million a year over the course of the agreement to “offset any costs incurred by FDOT in its management of the agreement.” It’s not clear what that figure is based on or how much the state agency would have to spend each year to manage the agreement, but a citation in the proposal indicated this stipend offer was a “trade secret” by Florida 54 Express, and should remain confidential.

Kris Carson, a spokeswoman for the FDOT, told The Laker/Lutz News the offer was not redacted from the public proposal because the FDOT doesn’t do confidential stipends. She also added that while the agreement still needs to be negotiated, the FDOT does not require $1 million a year to manage the agreement.

The development group also is asking for a 99-year lease through an initial 45-year agreement with built-in conditions that would allow them to extend it another 54 years.

A 99-year lease is exactly what one group that has studied privately constructed roadways in-depth has recommended against. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund shared a report in 2009 authored by Phineas Baxandall that any agreements between the government and a private entity should clearly spell out expectations and not last more than 30 years.

That way, if the road struggles or fails, it won’t get caught in limbo for years while the legal and financial aspects are worked out, a lot of it at taxpayers’ expense.

Once again, even that aspect of the agreement would have to be negotiated, Carson said.

Joining IIP on the project is OHL Infrastructure Inc., an American subsidiary of Spain’s OHL Group. The century-old company boasts 25,000 employees in 20 countries, with total revenue in 2012 topping $5 billion, according to the road proposal.

OHL’s Brazilian operations controlled nearly 2,000 miles of toll roads in that country before selling a substantial portion of that subsidiary in 2012 to a group led by Brookfield Infrastructure of Toronto. It also operates toll roads in other countries, including Mexico and Spain, with some of them being similar in scope to what is proposed for Pasco County.

Financing for the project could come from a variety of sources, including banks and private activity bonds. The group also could explore using the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, which provides loans and lines of credit to road projects. There are, however, limited funds available through that program, expected to reach $1 billion in 2014.

If constructed as planned, the finished toll road would not only provide an express route across the county, but also interconnect with other major arteries, including the Suncoast Parkway and Interstate 75, although the latter would require federal approval.

Although Florida 54 Express hopes to finish negotiations on the overall agreement by summer, the FDOT has not provided a timeline for its completion. The road developer also did not say when the first legs of the new system, if approved, would open.

Next step toward elevated road: Public education

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The biggest obstacle in the way of an elevated road connecting the east and west sides of Pasco County is public education.

At least that’s what Pasco County Commissioners stated last week just before signaling their support of the Florida Department of Transportation’s continued study into an unsolicited bid that would build upward on the State Road 54/56 corridor.

Commissioner Pat Mulieri says Pasco County officials should show this rendering when talking about the proposed elevated road. This concept would have elevated lanes high enough to provide a clear view across the road, and allow better local car and pedestrian traffic below. (Image courtesy of Pasco County Planning and Development)
Commissioner Pat Mulieri says Pasco County officials should show this rendering when talking about the proposed elevated road. This concept would have elevated lanes high enough to provide a clear view across the road, and allow better local car and pedestrian traffic below. (Image courtesy of Pasco County Planning and Development)

“I definitely don’t think the public understands what we are talking about,” Commissioners Kathryn Starkey said. “We need to go out to the community, get their input, and let them see what their options are. When I go to them, I see a lot of misunderstanding and misconception, and a lot of understandable objections. But they don’t know what we know. They don’t get to sit up here and see the traffic projections and understand what the alternatives are.”

International Infrastructure Partners Inc. has proposed building a 33-mile elevated toll road down the center of the State Road 54/56 corridor, similar to the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Hillsborough County, using private money to fund it. The ultimate decision on whether it happens lies with FDOT, but the state agency wanted the county’s OK before moving forward.

Richard Gehring, Pasco’s planning and development administrator, said one of the main misconceptions is that businesses and homes along the corridor would face giant walls, similar to what’s happened in the elevated portions of U.S. 19 in Pinellas County. However, a completely elevated road could have far less negative aesthetic impact than many realize.

“You could have view lines across the roadway,” Gehring said. “That condition could be enhanced by landscaping and night lighting to soften up the overall infrastructure.”

Gehring showed a rendering of what he thinks State Road 54 could look like from the ground level. The elevated road was about 20 feet high, but the supports were covered in topiary-like vegetation, and businesses across the road were quite visible.

“Have you reached out to the chambers to show them how this road could look?” Commissioner Pat Mulieri asked Gehring after seeing the images. “The elevated road has caused such an uproar since they think it would have this blank wall that would destroy businesses. But this is a totally different concept.”

But not all the commissioners were anxious to move forward with more studies of the elevated road. Commissioner Henry Wilson said he moves through traffic just fine.

“I spend very little time in congestion here in Pasco County,” he said. “The congestion is when I get into Hillsborough County. This is going to benefit the Pinellas and Hillsborough drivers more than it benefits our people, our citizens.”

Although Gehring demonstrated 17 other road options that were carefully considered instead of an elevated road — including the construction of a 20-lane surface highway through the middle of Pasco — both Wilson and Commissioner Ted Schrader felt there could be other alternatives outside of the corridor that could move traffic east and west.

That could include Ridge Road, which Schrader said might not have even been considered by FDOT since it is a county road and not a state one. Elevating that road and connecting it to Interstate 75 could be a possibility.

Gehring, however, said that would still only move traffic over the Suncoast Parkway, and would not connect the east and west sides of the county with an expressway option. And such an option will be needed within the next 30 years if the county doesn’t want to stunt its growth.

In the end, however, commissioners approved a resolution giving their support to more studies on a proposed elevated road unanimously.

The elevated road is still quite a ways away, if it ever happens. A member of Gehring’s team said ground could be broken within seven years at the earliest, although Schrader said it would be more like 10 years if everything goes as planned.