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Ed McKinney

Shaping a vision for transportation in Pasco

August 9, 2017 By Kathy Steele

The next phase in a transportation vision for Tampa Bay took a local turn into Pasco County.

More than 30 residents from Pasco and Hernando counties met on Aug. 3 as a “working group” tasked with recommending future transportation decisions. The Florida Department of Transportation hosted the event at the Myrtle Lake Baptist Church in Land O’ Lakes.

Ed McKinney, planning and environmental administrator for the Florida Department of Transportation’s District 7 office, in Tampa, met with more than 30 residents from Pasco and Hernando counties to talk about Tampa Bay Next. The initiative seeks to develop a transportation plan for Interstate 275. (Richard Riley)

The Community Working Group session was open to the public. It is one in a series of meetings in the Tampa Bay region as part of the Tampa Bay Next initiative. A regional meeting in Tampa kicked off the new initiative in May.

There are six working groups in total, representing geographic areas of the region.

Tampa Bay Next replaces the controversial Tampa Bay Express project that would have built new toll and express lanes along about 90 miles of Interstate 275, from Manatee County to Pasco County.

One segment of the project remains.

The state transportation department plans to build a replacement bridge for the Howard Franklin bridge, which links Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

That bridge replacement will include four multipurpose lanes and two express lanes.

But, the state roads department wants public input during the next two years for a new road project on I-275. The goal is to have plans ready by 2019.

Based on reactions to Tampa Bay Express, residents are tired of focusing only on car-driven road projects, said Ed McKinney, planning and environmental administrator for FDOT’s District 7 office, in Tampa.

New Port Richey resident Kelly Miller talks about priorities for Tampa Bay Next. Miller participated on one of five teams that held break-out sessions to come up with recommendations on transportation needs along Interstate 275, and in Pasco County.

Tampa Bay Next is meant to start conversations.

“We’re not going to show you any projects,” McKinney said. “We’re not going to show you any plans…We hear over and over we need to be thinking differently. People who say that are absolutely right,” he said.

Some of the trouble spots already identified in Pasco include the State Road 56 interchange on Interstate 75, the east/west corridor of State Road 54 and State Road 56, the intersection of State Road 54 and U.S. 41, and the lack of transit options.

At the working group sessions, people divided into five teams that prioritized transportation needs. They also made organizational decisions for future meetings.

As a group, they voted on priorities, based on a compiled list of recommendations from every team.

Top priorities included:

  • Adding light rail, possibly on U.S. 301 and the State Road 56 extension, and more bus service to destinations and high traffic areas
  • Converting CSX rail lines for passenger service
  • Providing Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, to serve the area

The session also produced a longer list of traffic problems people want addressed.

Requests and complaints included:

  • I-75 and State Road 56 – fix it
  • I-75 and Overpass Road – do it
  • State Road 54 and U.S. 41 intersection – fix it
  • Put multi-use trail on one side of State Road 56 extension and let it meander
  • More park and ride facilities
  • Extend Tower Road to State Road 589 and widen U.S. 41 – Yay Bexley!
  • Most of east Pasco is shoved onto I-75
  • Too many (development) entitlements on State Road 54
  • Plan for more recreational and bicycle trails

Once priorities were decided, Land O’ Lakes resident Jack George posed a question during public comment.

“What is the end game here? What is the objective?” he said. “I haven’t heard that tonight and, without a goal, I don’t know how to get there.”

McKinney said the state department of transportation planned a series of video “primers” to provide information on a broad range of topics, including how projects get funded. The primers hopefully will educate people on issues such as how projects are developed and funded, and allow for “longer conversations.”

The videos will be posted online, McKinney said.

David West, left, and Judy Geiger discuss a transportation vision for Interstate 275, and Pasco County, at a public meeting hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation.

Tampa Bay Next isn’t the only transportation initiative in Pasco.

Kris Hughes, the county’s planning and development director, offered perspective on some ongoing efforts.

For example, vision planning for State Road 54 and State Road 56 is entering a second phase, with a public meeting on Aug. 24 at 5:30 p.m., at the Pasco Utilities Administration Building, off U.S. 41.

The county is partnering in that effort, while also completing a separate planning study in the area.

Hughes also noted that new technology, including driverless cars, will be part of new development in the Connected City corridor in northeast Pasco.

“This is a very complex, very intricate system of efforts,” Hughes said.

Published August 9, 2017

Traffic relief coming to I-75 and State Road 56

December 21, 2016 By Kathy Steele

Motorists stuck in long lines of traffic at the Interstate 75 and State Road 56 interchange could get relief sooner rather than later.

It will come in the form of a new interchange known as a diverging diamond – a design gaining popularity nationally as a solution to traffic jams at major crossroads.

Aerial photo of I-44/Kansas Expressway Diverging Diamond Interchange in Springfield, Missouri. First of its kind in the U.S. (Courtesy of Missouri Department of Transportation)

The Florida Department of Transportation is moving the approximately $18.5 million road project up by two years. With funding in place, construction is set to begin sometime in fiscal year 2018, which runs from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.

Previously, the diverging diamond got priority status on the FDOT’s five-year work plan, but had a fiscal year 2020 start date.

“I am grinning ear to ear. I am so excited that the diverging diamond is moving up to 2018,” said Pasco County Chairman Mike Moore. “This is going to be one of the most innovative methods of relieving traffic. It’s going to be so beneficial, not just for that area, but for the entire region.”

Moore and other county commissioners got a presentation on the diverging diamond and other proposed road projects during a Dec. 6 meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization in Dade City.

The state transportation department’s five-year work plan of joint state and county road projects is updated annually with local input.

The I-75 interchange is a gateway in and out of major commercial developments on State Road 56, either already open for business – Tampa Premium Outlets – or under construction – Cypress Creek Town Center.

Longhorn Steakhouse and BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse are among the newest restaurants to open. Others include Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Chick-fil-A and Culver’s. More eateries are on the way.

Construction will soon be completed west of the interchange on a 150,000-square-foot sports complex and ice rink, known as Florida Hospital Center Ice.

Vehicles stack up daily at the interchange and bring traffic to a crawl, as motorists seek to go shopping, run errands, get to work or head home.

Peak traffic hours are a daily nightmare for motorists who get stuck in long lines at the Interstate 75 and State Road 56 interchange.
(File Photo)

Details are pending on how traffic will be routed through the busy intersection during construction.

But, Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said, “We’ll take the pain for the progress.”

Pasco County could become the second municipality in the state to have a diverging diamond. Sarasota is the first, with a diverging diamond interchange currently under construction at I-75 and University Parkway. It is expected to open in 2017.

The City of Jacksonville is considering a diverging diamond on Interstate 95.

In the diverging diamond interchange, multiple lanes of traffic from opposite directions crisscross from one side of the roadway to the other, and then switch back, guided by road signs, marked lanes and traffic signals.

Supporters of the design say it eases congestion, prevents wrong-way entry onto ramps and reduces crashes. The interchange also accommodates pedestrian crossings and bicycle lanes.

Other projects included in the five-year work plan are:

  • County Road 54 (Wesley Chapel Boulevard) from north of State Road 54 and State Road 56 to Progress Parkway; right-of-way to be purchased in 2018.
  • State Road 52 realignment from Uradco Place to west of Fort King Road; right-of-way to be purchased in 2018; construction in 2019.
  • S. 301 from State Road 56 (proposed) to State Road 39 (Paul Buchman Highway); preliminary engineering in 2018; right-of-way to be purchased in 2021, 2022.

For complete list of proposed projects and their descriptions visit D7wpph.com.

Comments on projects should be submitted by Dec. 27, either online or mailed to: Ed McKinney, Florida Department of Transportation, 11201 N. McKinley Drive, MS 7-500, Tampa, Florida, 33612.

Published December 21, 2016

 

Tampa Bay Express aims to address region’s congestion

August 17, 2016 By B.C. Manion

The proposed $3.3 billion Tampa Bay Express project has its critics – especially in areas near downtown Tampa, but it’s a project that’s needed to help relieve regional congestion, according to Ed McKinney, district planning and environmental administrator for District 7 of the Florida Department of Transportation.

“Currently, Tampa/St. Pete ranks seventh in the country for cities of its size for congestion,” McKinney said.

“I don’t have to tell you all, if you’ve driven around the area, we’ve got a lot of congestion, and that hurts us in a lot of ways,” McKinney said, during a recent luncheon meeting of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce.

Ed McKinney, district planning and environmental administrator for District 7 of the Florida Department of Transportation, explains why express lanes are needed to relieve regional congestion. (B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
Ed McKinney, district planning and environmental administrator for District 7 of the Florida Department of Transportation, explains why express lanes are needed to relieve regional congestion.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)

“It hurts us when it comes to attracting new businesses. It hurts us mostly when it comes to attracting new residents,” he said.

People moving into the area want to know that they’ll be able to get to work or wherever they need to go, without being stuck in traffic for a half-hour, he said.

The problem is only going to get worse, as the region’s population increases and more jobs are created, he added.

“In Pasco County, population is expected to grow 97 percent by 2040,” he said. Hillsborough County is expected to grow by 48 percent, and Polk County by 41 percent during the same period.

“Pasco County is expected to grow employment by 200 percent, and that’s huge,” he said. Those workers won’t all be coming from Pasco County, he said. They’ll be heading to Pasco from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, too.

“People are going to go where the jobs are. That’s what we’re seeing,” McKinney said.

“People say, ‘Why don’t you consider a no-build?’

“This is the no-build, he said, pointing to a graphic projecting future traffic congestion.

“The no-build says you’re ‘fine with 375,000 cars traveling everyday on I-4 (Interstate 4)’, when it only has the capacity of handling just over 125,000.

“It’s says, ‘We’re OK with the downtown interchange only being able to handle 325,000 cars,’ when it can only handle 175,000.

“That’s the challenge that we’re dealing with. That’s the problem that we’re trying to solve,” McKinney said.

The Tampa Bay Express project grew out of the Tampa Interstate Study that started back in the 1980s, McKinney said.

“This plan looked out into the future. What’s the development that’s going to be going on in the region? What’s the congestion pattern? Where are people going to go to work, what they’re going to do for fun, and how are we going to manage all of that traffic?

“How do get these people to move around, to make sure this region is economically viable and able to take on the challenges?

“If you’ve lived here, you know that we’ve widened I-4. We just completed I-275 widening. We did the Crosstown Connector project. All of those projects were part of this Tampa Interstate Study.

“It’s an evolving document,” he said.

“Every time you go and build a new piece of it, you look at the traffic and development patterns, and you update your document.

“What we’re going to be doing is adding express lanes, within the interstate, that will be tolled,” he said.

There will still be the same number of general purpose lanes as there are now, but there also will be express lanes, which are tolled.

People who want to make a quicker trip will pay the toll.

For instance, someone who has been late to work repeatedly may use the toll lane to avoid being late again, he said. Or, it might be used by someone in a rush to pick up their child from day care or get to an important business meeting.

“What they’ve seen in Miami is that there is no real pattern for why people use them,” he said.

One thing they have noticed is that people are using them at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.

When asked why, many said they are doing that to avoid a potential collision with a wrong-way driver, McKinney said.

“The express lanes will be built, in a majority of cases, within the median that is there now,” he said. But, interchanges will need to be reconstructed.

The system is designed to be used for longer distances, such as getting from Brandon to the airport, or to Pinellas County.

There will be access points in the Gateway area of Pinellas County, in the Westshore area, at Tampa International Airport, at several places downtown Tampa, and in the general vicinity of the University of South Florida. There also will be access points in Brandon and Plant City.

“People say, ‘Why don’t you just spend this money on transit? You’re talking about a $3.3 billion project. You could get a lot of transit for that,’” he said.

Transit is important, and it is part of Hillsborough’s long-range transportation plan, but he added, “it’s not the one solution that fixes all of our problems.

“It needs to be a mix of managed lanes, as well as some sort of transit solution,” McKinney said.

Published August 17, 2016

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