Noise An Issue For Veterans' Widening

[FINAL Edition]
Tampa Tribune - Tampa, Fla.

 Thursday November 16, 2006

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Noise An Issue For Veterans' Widening

MEETING ON PROJECT DRAWS LESS THAN 100

By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune

CITRUS PARK - The venerable Veterans Expressway carries more than 60,000 motorists to and from work each day, but a plan to double its size drew less than 100 people at a public hearing this week.

That may be a signal that the improvements are OK with northwest Hillsborough County residents looking to get to work and home a half-hour quicker each day.

Most agreed the widening from four to eight lanes between Memorial Highway and the North Dale Mabry Highway spur is a good thing, but a few are worried about the noise that may result from the added traffic.

Seven people spoke at the 45-minute public hearing Tuesday night. Most in attendance treated the event as a fact-finding mission, milling about the project's maps and pamphlets, chatting informally with engineers and project managers. Of the seven who spoke, five had concerns about noise and the road-builders' ability to stifle it.

"My property backs up to the Veterans," said Jeff Stevens, who lives halfway between Linebaugh Avenue and Citrus Park Drive. "Noise abatement has got to be addressed. The high-priced subdivisions are getting noise abatement; we're not."

Planners said that a noise abatement study looked at 22 locations along the stretch of highway and that seven spots qualified for the tall walls designed to minimize noise on the outside. That's not enough, Tom Aderhold said.

"When was this [noise] study done and does it need to be updated?" he said. Planners said they couldn't answer that question Tuesday night, but they promised to take names and addresses of concerned residents and contact them later with answers.

Florida's Turnpike Enterprises, which oversees the project, held the hearing to get public input.

Transportation officials want to widen the Veterans from four to eight lanes along the 12 miles from Memorial Highway to the North Dale Mabry Highway spur and to six lanes to Van Dyke Road. The 3-mile stretch from Van Dyke Road to Dale Mabry would likely be unchanged.

The plan also calls for upgrading the electronic toll collection system, implementing improvements to toll booths at Waters Avenue, Anderson Road, Linebaugh Avenue, Gunn Highway, Ehrlich and Hutchison roads, planners say.

Eventually, the expressway would do away with the Anderson and Sugarwood toll plazas that span the road and create bottlenecks during rush hours. In their places would be electronic toll collecting systems that would tabulate tolls from passing cars from overhead gantries.

The plan seeks to ease gridlock on the road that has evolved into western Hillsborough County's main north-south highway. Opened in 1994, the expressway has seen its use escalate in recent years, mirroring the residential growth in northwest Hillsborough County and southeast Pasco County.

In 2005, users at the Anderson toll plaza have increased by 8.5 percent, from 49,000 motorists the year before to 53,200. Over the past 10 years, use of the road has doubled, said Joanne Hurley, spokeswoman for Florida's Turnpike Enterprise.

She said she expected people to voice concerns over the noise. That's a common complaint, she said.

"Noise is always big with people," she said. "People always want to know how they are going to be affected by the noise."

The project, if it proceeds as planned, would cost an estimated $525 million and construction won't begin until 2010. It should be completed by 2012, said project manager Henry Pinzon. He said after that, the road would handle anticipated growth in the area until 2025, when the expressway may need more widening.

Most of the cost is in design and construction and most of the land purchases along the expressway are completed.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 865-1504 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com

Photo credit: Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO (2005)

Photo: Because of rapid growth in northwest Hillsborough County and Pasco County, traffic on the Veterans Expressway, which opened in 1994, has increased dramatically. The road, which experiences gridlock, has become the county's major north-south highway.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Tampa Tribune and may not be republished without permission. E-mail library@tampatrib.com

Credit: The Tampa Tribune

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